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The recipe was originally from a book of collected recipes from B&B’s across the country. It has been tweaked considerably over the years as it quickly became the top favorite banana bread recipe for the family. The texture is more like chocolate cake with lovely bits of chocolate.
Difficulty: Easy
Servings: 1 large loaf or 5-6 small tea loaves
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp espresso powder (optional but stellar!)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, chilled
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
5 ounces milk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
Directions
Grease the bottom of a 9×5-inch loaf pan.
In a separate mixing bowl combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, sugar, and salt. Add butter in thin slices and run mixer on low speed until butter has cut evenly into the dry ingredients. This may also be done by hand, but discovered that cutting the butter in made a more tender bread vs creaming the butter with the sugar.
Mash bananas leaving a small bits (don’t turn it into soup!). Mix bananas, milk, eggs, and extract thoroughly; add to dry ingredients and mix just until blended. Fold in chocolate chips.
Pour the batter into prepared pan. Bake in a 350ยบ oven for 50 to 60 minutes. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove and cool completely.
Helpful hint: Rarely do I bake a single recipe as most soda breads easily double without problems. This double recipe will neatly fill 5 to 6 loaf pans, 3×5-1/2-inch, with a baking time of about 30 to 40 minutes. Fill the pans and set them on a large cookie sheet to slip easily in and out of the oven. I like this size as they’re easy to wrap ‘n freeze, partially thaw later and perfectly slice without excess crumbing. Good portion control too, as this bread is difficult to NOT sneak another slice every time you pass through the kitchen. A thick slice topped with ice cream and nuts is quite luscious as well!
Categories: Breads, Cakes, Desserts, Fruit Breads, Gift Basket Goodies
Submitted by: ruthmarie on December 2, 2011
judydee says:
Just wanted to let you know that I made this for a potluck yesterday, and it was very well received. I had some doubts about cutting in the butter instead of creaming it with the sugar, but it worked very well. It may be the first time anyone ever put a curse on me for bringing a dish(lol), one of the girls was trying to diet!!
On December 4, 2011 at 9:57 pm
Ruthmarie says:
Glad the bread did well for you! … it’ll be the one recipe repeatedly requested at future events (ask me how I know this). One happy note is that the chocolate bread is low impact in comparison to the calorie hit of chocolate cake and most sweet banana bread recipes … one could kill a diet with alot worse!
On December 5, 2011 at 12:55 am
murphala says:
I made this today! I did a chocolate banana bread lab today and made the other recipe that was posted by brookdale along with this one. I have to say, they are each a totally different experience! This is very much like chocolate cake, but it’s not as sweet. I love that. I did use the espresso powder so it has a very rich, dense, intense flavor. This is a nice slice to have with a steaming hot cup of tea or coffee on a rainy afternoon. Thanks for posting!
On December 5, 2011 at 3:21 pm
justquilting says:
This was great and even better the next morning with a cinnamon cream cheese spread right out of the toaster. Thanks
On December 14, 2012 at 2:33 pm