Wednesday, May 04, 2011

chocolate-banana bread


A damp, dense loaf of chocolate-banana goodness. Buddha wants a bite.

Being thrifty, I always save peeled, gone-too-far bananas and store them in Ziplock bags in the freezer to use as smoothie and banana bread fodder. When I opened my freezer this morning, a bag of frozen bananas fell out and I took that as a sign from the kitchen gods.


The Loaf, cooling on the windowsill.

Banana Bread is the quintessential American recipe: fast, easy and tasty. Since chocolate and bananas share a natural affinity, I decided to let them play together in this recipe. The bitter chocolate balances and slightly dominates the ripe banana’s cloying sweetness. This moist, dense loaf is a no-brainer for breakfast, but you can easily transform it into Dessert by warming a slice and serving it topped with a scoop of vanilla, chocolate, banana soy ice cream, and perhaps a drizzle of chocolate or raspberry sauce.

  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • ½ cup (1 stick) Earth Balance, room temperature
  • 1/4 cup cocoa
  • 1 T banana extract (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
  • 3 T soy, rice or hemp milk
  • 3 large, very ripe bananas, mashed
  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt

Optional additions:
Serves 10

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Grease a 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan.
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the sugar and Earth Balance until light and fluffy. Add cocoa, extract and milk and mix well.
3. Mix in the mashed bananas, then add the flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt, a bit at a time. Mix until just combinezd: do not overmix. If using optional additions, stir them in by hand at this point.
4. Pour batter into pan and bake 55-60 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool on a rack for at least 15 minutes before inverting and removing from pan.

14 comments:

vko said...

All hail the kitchen gods- loving this yumminess, can't wait to bake away. xox

karen said...

Wait, wouldn't there be cocoa in this???

urban vegan said...

All fixed, Karen. That's what I get for writing a pre-coffee recipe.

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Oooooh chocolate goodness. The best.

Millie said...

oh yeah...now that sounds really good...Yummy.

MeloMeals said...

Yum! I love chocolate and banana together!

foodfeud said...

Raspberry sauce sounds like it would be amazing on this.

vegan.in.brighton said...

Chocolate banana bread? You're awesome!

Lee Ann said...

I saw the cover of your new book on Amazon and it is so pretty.
Can't wait to get my copy.

Anonymous said...

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~Adam Paul Green

http://mxi.myvoffice.com/cacaopow/

http://myxocai.com/cacaopow/healthy-chocolate

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dreaminitvegan said...

ahhhhh man! Banana is good on it's own and then you go ahead and add chocolate. Oh yummy I'm so in!

Tara said...

This banana bread is awesome. I made it a few days ago and have been enjoying it for breakfast and for snacking. It contains the perfect amount of chocolate and is deliciously moist. My omnivore husband loved it as well. I did not use any of the optional add-ins and it truly doesn't need them. I will enjoy making this again and again. Thank you, Dynise!

Flo said...

I made this last night and it is perfect! I didn' thave the dried cherries and I am sure that would have been even better. I have a great quick breakfast for the week! Thank you!

Unknown said...

I like this a lot. Thank you for sharing. I'm always looking for upcycles like this. In the end, you don't know it was a shipping pallet to begin with!
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