Chocolate Banana Bread

Whenever I need a no fail recipe I go to joyofbaking.com. This site is a great resource for all things baking, She has recipes, videos of many of the recipes, an awesome substitution chart. Top 100 recipes of the year. It is worth spending some time there.
I had pinned a Chocolate Banana Bread. The chocolate is not overwhelming--it let's the banana peek thru. It is an easy recipe, certainly a beginner could tackle this recipe.


Chocolate Banana Bread
1/2 cup toasted walnuts or pecans, coarsely chopped--take the time to toast them they are so much crisper
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa (Dutch Processed or Regular) I used Dutch Processed
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white, dark or milk chocolate chips
2 eggs lightly beaten
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
3 ripe bananas, about 1 pound, mashed well (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees..The recipe said to use a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan. Mine happened to be a bit smaller so I also made a dozen mini muffins. I use Bakers Joy and my muffins and bread popped right out.

Place the nuts on a baking sheet and bake for about 8-10 minutes until lightly toasted. Cool and chop.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa, sugar baking soda, baking powder and salt.

In a medium sized bowl combine the mashed bananas, eggs, melted butter and vanilla. With rubber scrapper lightly fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined. Batter will be thick and chunky. Fold in the nuts and chocolate chips. Using a mini Pampered Chef Scoop place 12 level scoops of batter in prepared pan. Scrape remainder of batter in loaf pan. Mini Muffins bake for just  13 minutes--trust me on that one. The bread will take 45-55 minutes. Start checking at 45. Bread is done when pick comes out clean. Place on a wire rack and cool then remove from pan. Bread is yummy warm or it also keeps well in a freezer bag. Enjoy