Healthy Double Chocolate Banana Bread
Banana bread is one good way to use up over-ripe bananas and everyone in our family likes chocolate. So what better way could there be to use up a bunch of brown bananas than a few loaves of Double Chocolate Banana Bread? I took the recipe for banana bread from my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook and changed it up a bit to make this recipe. I reduced the sugar by half, replaced the shortening with canola oil, used organic flour and organic, fair trade cocoa powder and dark chocolate chunks to make it more heart healthy without losing the flavor. This bread is not nearly as sweet as most banana bread, but we really like it with less sugar. I hope you like it too!
2 cups unbleached flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 Tbs ground flax seed
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
2 cups mashed banana
5 eggs
4 Tbs milk (soy, rice, or almond milk can be substituted)
2 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup canola or olive oil
1 cup chocolate chips, dark chocolate if you like
Grease 2 loaf pans (8x4x2″) and set aside. Preheat oven to 350 F.
Sift together unbleached flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Stir in whole wheat flour, sugar, and flax seed. In a separate bowl, combine banana, eggs, milk, vanilla and oil. Beat well. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and combine thoroughly. Stir in chocolate chips and divide evenly between loaf pans. Bake for approximately 55 to 60 minutes or until a knife inserted in center of loaf comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack, then turn out of pan on wire rack and cool completely.
You may want to put one loaf of bread in the freezer for later, or you may want to double this recipe so you have some to freeze and plenty to eat while the chocolate is still gooey!