Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

As promised, I’ve put together the recipe for the Chocolate Banana Bread I demonstrated at last week’s Baking Demo in Naperville, IL. At the demo, I discussed baking tips and halal substitutes for particular baking ingredients, which you can find a summary of on one of my previous posts. To the demo I also brought samples of my Banana Blueberry Loaf and Cranberry & White Chocolate Mini Muffins, both of which you can find recipes for here.

Just about everyone loves chocolate and lots of sweet breads are made with banana. Combine the two and you get a very healthy snack or breakfast on the go. You can even spread this batter into paper-lined muffin tins to make large muffins or mini muffins like the ones pictured here. Do it your way. Have fun with it!

Makes about 8-12 slices, depending how you cut them.

Dry Ingredients

• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 2 cups pure cane sugar, granulated

Wet Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• ½ cup banana flavored yogurt
• ½ cup whole milk yogurt
• 1 cup vegetable OR Grape seed oil. I don’t recommend any strong oils such as olive oil because it tends to take over the flavor of the blueberry and banana.

Additional Ingredients

• 1 large, very ripe banana
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Measure all dry ingredients into a metal or glass mixing bowl. Set aside.
3. In a separate mixing bowl, add the eggs and yogurt. Using a wire whisk, mix together well. Next, add the vegetable oil and whisk again until all three ingredients are well-blended.
4. To the egg-yogurt-oil mixture, add the banana by mashing it into the mixture. Then, using a strong whisk, blend everything together.
5. Using 1-2 cups at a time, add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Using a wooden spoon or heavy wire whisk, blend all ingredients until there are no lumps.
6. Gently fold in the chocolate morsels.
7. Pour mixture into a large, oiled (spray) loaf pan and bake in a preheated oven and bake for 60-75 minutes or until a toothpick or flat knife comes out clean from the center and the top is golden brown.
8. Allow to cool before turning out of pan, approximately 30-40 minutes.

On a couple of other notes…

We’ve been partnering up with some great companies that are striving hard to bring natural and halal products to market: Apriori Beauty, Shabazz Cola and Insane Jerky,  just to name a few. Another one I’m really excited to have just learned about is CSN Stores. They list 200 + websites, selling a variety of products for the home and office, ranging from kitchen bar stools to kitchen tables, sofas and floor lamps. I may even be testing some products in the future to show you what works in the kitchen and what doesn’t.

It’s been a very busy few weeks around here. Spring is coming, which means I’m very excited to begin shopping for produce at local farmer’s markets and to even begin planting my own herbs and vegetables on my balcony to enjoy all summer. I’m also very excited to announce that I’ll be gearing up to bring My Halal Kitchen recipes to your home or event for more baking and cooking demos! More details here.  Enjoy the weather, everyone!