Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

And now for something completely different . . . not a soup, or a stew, or a Crock-Pot dish.  Not a chicken thing or a tofu scramble.  A desserty/snacky/breakfasty delight. 

I usually try to minimize my baking efforts.  It’s not that I don’t enjoy it.  And L. certainly digs getting her mixer on and crackin’ a few eggs.  But then we have the product, and it’s delicious, and, well, hard to resist.  So we eat it all up and then we (well, D. and I) pay the price on the hips, the belly and with the corresponding uptick on the scale. 

But we love us some baked goods in this house, and so when I was faced with a bunch of really brown bananas, well, I couldn’t resist trying out this new recipe for banana bread.

My recipe makes two full-sized loaves.  The Greek yogurt helps add moisture without added fat (there’s butter for that!).  We made one chocolate with chocolate chips, and one plain with chocolate chips.  They’re both damn good, although I think the choco/choco is a little too much . . . and I would’ve loved nuts, but the weirdospeople around here aren’t into those in their quickbreads. 

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Banana Bread (adapted from Savory Sweet Life)

Preheat over to 350°. Lightly grease two 9×5 loaf pans with cooking spray or butter. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together. Stir in egg, mashed bananas, sour cream, and vanilla until well blended. Add baking soda, salt, flour. Mix everything until well incorporated. Add chocolate chips, cocoa powder (if you want both loaves to be choco/choco) and nuts (if using), and split the batter in half.  Add cocoa to one-half of the batter.

Pour batter into loaf pans and bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour. Check for doneness by inserting a toothpick into the center of the loaf – if it comes out clean, your loaves are done.

Makes 2 full-sized loaves, and this stuff freezes like a dream – pack one away for your next coffee-klatch.

© 2010, Sarah. All rights reserved.

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