I was really looking forward to trying this recipe that I saw about a week ago. I love a good banana bread, and how could adding chocolate make it bad? I decided that I don’t really love chocolate and bananas together, but if you do, you’ll probably like this recipe.

It seemed too decadent to eat for breakfast, and I don’t really like banana flavored things for dessert. So I guess it’s a good snack bread. With a stick of butter inside and three kinds of chocolate, it’s not exactly slimming, but it still looks really good. Just warn people that it is banana flavored, or I think they may think it’s a weird chocolate loaf.

If you want a purely chocolate loaf, I think there are better ones. And if you want a great banana bread, I think there are better ones too.

For this recipe, I made it into one foil tin loaf for giving away and one mini loaf. It would probably fit one normal sized loaf pan or a few mini ones. The pictures are the mini loaf size. I am taking the foil one on vacation this weekend. If people like it, I’ll let you know!

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

makes one large loaf (or about 3 mini loaves)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 large bananas, mashed (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1/4 cup milk
• 4 ounces dark chocolate, melted (I subbed semi-sweet baking squareS)
• 3/4 cup milk chocolate chips

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a loaf pan liberally with non-stick spray.
• In a bowl, mix together flour, cocoa, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and baking powder, then set aside.
• In a large bowl, whisk egg and sugar together until smooth.
• Whisk in vanilla extract, then add bananas and milk and mix until combined.
• Add in dry ingredients slowing, mixing with a spoon until batter comes together.
• Add in melted butter and mix until incorporated, then stir in melt chocolate.
• Fold chocolate chips into batter. Pour batter into loaf pan. Set pan on a baking sheet, then bake for 55-60 minutes, or until center is set and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cook time may be shorter if you do mini-loaves.
• Remove bread from over and sprinkle with additional chocolate chips if desired. Let cool completely (1-2 hours) before cutting.