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.

My freezer of goodies was very bare and I needed something good to grab after dinner. Even Jeffrey was asking for a cookie! There was nothing sweet in our house, it was hard to believe.

I pulled a recipe in September’s Cooking Light for these brownies, and actually had all the ingredients at home. They were very simple to make, and turned out quite fluffy and peanut butter-y. The chocolate chips and pb chips were a tasty bonus. I also really liked that they cut nicely. I remember when I used to make box brownies as a kid, they were jagged and ugly. I guess if you put the time into making them from scratch, they cut nicer too!

Peanut Butter Blondies

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 C all-purpose flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled slightly
• 2 tablespoons 2% reduced-fat milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• Cooking spray
• 4 (0.75-ounce) peanut butter cups, coarsely chopped (I subbed Reece’s peanut butter chips)

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 350°.
•  Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 3 ingredients (through salt), stirring well with a whisk. Combine peanut butter and next 4 ingredients (through eggs), stirring well. Add peanut butter mixture to flour mixture; stir until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
• Scrape the batter into a 9-inch square metal baking pan lightly coated with cooking spray, and arrange the peanut butter cups over batter. Bake at 350° for 19 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs clinging. Cool in pan on a wire rack.

I served these for our Yom Kippur dinner, but still had most of them leftover, so to the freezer they went! We’ll enjoy them for sure.

This is not something you see often around here. A triple chocolate cake? With Baker’s chocolate, chocolate chips, and cocoa powder? Made from scratch? Definitely not a norm in our house. But for a special occasion, and one where leftovers aren’t hanging around, it was a fun baking project.

I got out the big guy, my KitchenAid stand mixer for this project. It has a short ingredient list, but is very dense with six eggs and 2.5 cups of sugar. Yes, this is why I was glad I was giving this whole thing away.

Easy to make, this bundt cake was completely from scratch. I have a favorite family recipe for almost the same thing that uses a box cake mix, a box pudding mix, and a container of sour cream. Although that one is soooo good and one of my favorite desserts ever, I wanted something homemade.

Triple Chocolate Cake

from How Sweet It Is

Ingredients:

• 1.5 sticks butter, melted
• 5 squares Baker’s chocolate, melted
• 2.5 C white sugar
• 6 eggs
• 2 C all purpose flour
• 1/4 C cocoa powder
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 C semi-sweet chocolate chips

A hit even with a 6 year old boy, this cake was very chocolatey and dense, and extra sweet from the drippy glaze. A great treat for a special occasion, I was very glad it wasn’t sitting around my kitchen half eaten!

Gear up for summer week on the blog! Everything this week is quick, easy, full of strong flavors, and perfect for a long, hot summer.

Every other week on Thursdays, I get together with a group of girls to play poker. We’ve been playing together for two years, and it has turned into less poker playing and more chatting and snacking. We rotate houses and play for $10 each week. It usually lasts under two hours, but we love our poker Thursdays.

I hosted last week’s game, we ended up not playing at all. After a busy day, I could have picked up something at the grocery store, but I wanted to bake something. On a weeknight, I really don’t enjoy baking something that takes a long time and makes a mess.

I went to my recipe book where I collect recipes I’ve printed over the past five years. I remembered this recipe I printed last summer as something I thought looked easy, healthy and still indulgent. Mama Pea is always to the rescue. (Pre-order her book here. I did! This is her first cookbook of all meatless family dishes. Her blog is so witty and fun, and her recipes are so creative. She transitioned her family to a meatless lifestyle and has blogged and written about it. I met her in November, and she is so kind and fun in real life too. I can’t wait for the book.)

No guilt brownies

(called Single Chin Double Chocolate Brownies by Peas and Thank You)

These brownies remind me of Snack Wells that I used to eat all the time, two a day. Those have a lot of processed ingredients, these do not. Those come in a box, these come out of your oven in 20 minutes. Those dry out quickly, these stay ooey and gooey. Did you notice they’re vegan?

My poker group thought they were delish. My husband even liked them too. I was just glad to use two bowls to make a treat and not have to buy anything at the grocery. The only problem is it only makes twelve squares!

A winning weeknight treat it was.