Double Chocolate Chunk Banana Bread

Okay, this afternoon, I started a hunt for a recipe for Chocolate Quick bread, or a chocolate coffee cake, and I came upon a great recipe for Chocolate Quick bread with Peanut Butter Cream cheese spread from Dara over at Cookin' Canuck .  Only to discover that it was actually a guest post by Michelle at Brown Eyed Baker .  That however, is  irrelevant, because it was after I had printed off the recipe, and was getting set to make it, that the bananas fell out of the freezer.
Uh huh, so many bananas in our freezer that when I opened it, a bunch fell out.  You see, in the winter time, we go through many many many bananas.  In the summer, it is a different story, and I often end up throwing them into the freezer to keep the fruit flies away.  So, back to these frozen bananas...I tried to get them back in the freezer, but the two bags of blueberries appeared to have been the ones responsible for the eviction and those bananas just weren't going back in.
So, instead of Chocolate Quick Bread (a la Brown Eyed Baker), I made my own banana bread, with a little chocolate twist...

Double Chocolate Chunk Banana Bread: 2 loaves

Preheat oven to 350F, spray or grease two 9x5 loaf pans.
You will need:
2 cups mashed banana (about 4 large bananas)
1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1 cup plain yogurt
4 eggs, beaten.
Place bananas in large bowl or that of a standing mixer.  Cream sugar with bananas, add oil, yogurt and eggs.  Continue mixing until well combined.
In medium bowl, combine :
1 cup natural cocoa powder
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup fine grind whole spelt flour (you could use all purpose or regular whole wheat, but I like spelt in banana bread)
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt.
Stir well with a fork.  Add slowly to the wet ingredients, mix until just combined.  Add 1 cup chocolate chips or chocolate chunks (about four 1 ounce squares, chopped coarsely), and let beater go around 3 or 4 times.

Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for 50 minutes or until tester comes out clean and bread has pulled away just slightly from the sides.  Cool for a few minutes on a rack in pans, then tip out and cool completely before serving.


Voila!  And so yummy!  And your kids can even take them in their lunches!  The teachers will be asking you to send them on special occasions (like halloween or for a birthday) because they are still a "healthy" treat!

Happy Packing!

Kim

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Yum Yum Yum!  Who doesn't love to find something sweet and homemade tucked into their lunch?  I bake a lot, although apparently not often enough, given that there is "nothing" to eat again.  We have a few regulars (altho none made currently!  Just our regular recipes): banana bread, pumpkin loaf, blueberry-spelt muffins, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and ginger molasses cookies.  Oh yes, and applesauce cake.  All recipes that have been tweaked enough that I feel good about my kids eating any of them for breakfast!  Whole grains, fruit, low in fat and many with added yogurt to increase calcium and protein.  But, every once in a while, I hear my mother's voice in my head saying, "Oh gee whiz, can't we just make something without worrying about whether it is good for us or not?  Just make it with white flour for a change."
So, last night, I set out to do just that...I had found a fabulous recipe for Chocolate chip cookies on The Sisters Cafe.  I loved Melanie's tips for making cookies, especially the one about making big cookies!  So, I printed the recipe and headed for the kitchen.  My kids were going to be so thrilled, Mum was going to make BIG Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I stood in front of the baking side of the pantry, reading through the recipe.  Well, there it was, the first problem.  The recipe called for 2 cups (less 2 TBSP) of cake flour.  Okay, yes, I had cake flour, but it was whole wheat Cake flour.  Oh well, whole wheat would have to be it, as I wasn't heading to the grocery store at 8:30 at night.  Next item?  1 2/3 cups of bread flour...eh mm...I know, you have already figured out problem number two...Baking soda, baking powder, coarse salt.  Got em all.  Butter?  Yes sir.  Probably should add a little extra given all the whole wheat flour.  Sugar...1 1/4 cup light brown sugar...Nope, gonna have to be "Best Brown"  which is lovely and rich and in no way "light" in colour.  And we will have to increase the brown sugar just a little, because I have just discovered that there is almost no white sugar left.  Perhaps there is some left in the sugar bowl?  Eggs: well, we have one large and many many extra large.  Since I have used whole wheat flour, I figure that the cookies can handle one large egg and one extra large egg, and I make a note to remember to go the long way after school the next day and hope that the egg stand has eggs left when we get there!
Vanilla extract?  Got it!  (2 large bottles in fact...Friends keep going to Mexico and bringing it back for me.  I am so spoiled!)
And, no we don't have any fancy 60%  cacao chocolate disks...Hershey's Chippits are going to have to do.
I can feel my Super Mum star slipping away before it even rises...Must make BIG cookies!  That should overshadow the whole wheat flour...That and lots and lots of chocolate chips (and why not?  The recipe calls for 1 1/4 lbs!)
So, I make up the dough (and it makes a lovely dough, in spite of the whole wheat flour!)...stick it into the fridge (chill for a minimum of 12 hours, ideally 36 hours).  If I left chocolate chip cookie dough in the fridge for 36 hours in this house, there would be none left at the end to make cookies!  12 hours it will be.
Then, I slept in this morning!  Nothing to get into a panic about, however, it doesn't leave any time for baking cookies before going to school.  So, lunch treats were: yogurt (the vanilla plus kind that tastes like pudding, because Thrifty's has it on special: 3 big containers for $7.00), carrot sticks and cucumber rounds, apples, and granola bars...Both kids are looking for strawberries, but I explained that those went in their lunches the day before.  "What about the cookies, Mum?"  "They aren't finished yet, we can make them tonight."  And I successfully distract them with scrambled eggs and toast.
After supper tonight, I got the dough out of the fridge and set about making some BIG cookies.  Until I got out the 1/3 cup measuring spoon and took a really good look at it.  Those are going to be REALLY BIG cookies.  And I couldn't do it.  Ended up, I got out my "large" food scoop (really an ice cream scoop with a fancy name), and used that (I think the measurement of it is close to a 1/4 cup).
Turns out the large food scoop was the perfect size, and the cookies got rave reviews (including some chocolate smiles because of all the chocolate chips). So yummy! "Mummy, they're so big!"  my daughter said and my son wanted to know if he could take them in his lunch.  "I guess so, " I said.  "I won't tell my teacher"  he smiled.  Apparently, my children didn't even notice the whole wheat flour...
I will make sure and pack him some extra carrot sticks to hide the cookie with!
And for lunch tomorrow, my lovelies will enjoy leftover quiche and salad, as well as their BIG cookies!
Happy Packing!

To enjoy the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies, find the recipe at
http://sisterscafe.blogspot.com/2011/03/secrets-to-perfect-chocolate-chip.html