Chocolate Banana Bread

Time spent in the company of my friends is always filled with fun and laughter. The last week was one such week that can be said as a friend-week, with lunch and dinner meets, a totally food indulgence week. The weekend brought in some great news from a dear friend who secured her dream project. Another thing to note, it makes me very happy to tell you all that this is my 25^th post. To celebrate all these happy moments I am posting my Chocolate Banana Bread recipe. In my home country all celebratory occasions call for something sweet and hence the indulgence. Just like our friends and family who add joy to our daily life, this too is a delicious bread that fills the house with a very sweet aroma when being baked, adding the joy to our cake craving taste buds. A yummy delight!

Bananas are abundantly available all year round, and are a good source of fibre, potassium and vitamin B6. But asking the kids to eat them on a daily basis is a task in itself. Most often than not, they end up ripening in the fruit basket, giving them one more reason to not eat them. This bread is my way of using the ripened fruit and making it appealing and irresistible for them, which they never refuse. The recipe requires very ripe bananas, almost with black dotted skin, the one that would be seen fit for throwing in the waste bin. The more ripe the fruit, the better the taste and flavour of the bread. The plain banana bread was not much fancied at home, the colour of the bread is not that appealing. As mostly chocolate based cakes are preferred at home so I tried adding cocoa to the list of ingredients and that made this bread a winner. The kids cannot refuse this, in fact want it more, and even the baker gets to over indulge once in a while!

This is a very easy recipe, even new cooks will find it easy. I always enjoy baking it, and today am happy sharing with you all. Do try baking it and sharing the bread with others and continue my chain of spreading happiness to others that you come across.

Ingredients:

Medium-sized extremely ripe Bananas-2

Eggs-2

Butter (unsalted)-100 gm

Sugar-200 gm

Refined Flour (Maida)-150 gm

Cocoa Powder-50 gm (3-4 Tbsp. I used Hershey’s cocoa)

Baking Powder-1 Tsp

Walnuts-50 gm (Dry roasted in hot oven for 10 min)

Note: All ingredients are at room temperature. Prepare/weigh and keep them ready to use.

METHOD:

Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Grease a bread/loaf tin with butter and keep ready for use.
Sieve the refined flour, baking powder and cocoa together. Ground the sugar and mix it with the flour mixture.
Take the room temperature butter in a glass bowl or a big mixing bowl. Beat the soft butter with spatula.
Mash the ripened bananas and mix with the butter.
Lightly beat 2 eggs in a small separate bowl and add to the butter mixture. Do not be alarmed if the mixture looks curdled.
Whisk for a minute all the ingredients of the glass bowl with a hand mixer so that the butter, bananas and eggs get mixed well.
Add vanilla essence and give one whisk to the butter mixture.
Fold in the flour mixture into the butter mixture. This is done with help of a spatula, in one direction. The mixture should not be over mixed.
Add the oven roasted walnuts. (The nuts can be roasted for 10 minutes in hot oven.)They should be coarsely crushed with hand before adding to the cake batter.
Empty the batter into the greased loaf tin and put this in the preheated oven for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
When the cake is done, remove tin from oven and cool. Then remove the cake from the tin and let cool on wire rack.

Enjoy the freshly baked warm banana bread with tea or coffee or store in fridge for later use. Today afternoon, in my house, it was a patient wait for cutting and eating this sweet temptation. So dear readers go ahead and try it out.