Banana meets chocolate

Once upon a time, there was a banana who had been lying down in the fruit basket for many days. Cursed with a little brown-freckled skin, the poor fella looked pretty sad and lonely as if he had no real friends in the whole world to interact with. His only sibling had already left the house a few days back to join a dairy association together with Mrs. Sugar Beet´s daughter, Crystal Sugar, from the neighborhood. Banana had heard people saying that the owner of the dairy association, Mr. Milk, was really happy with their performance, and chances were that he might be hiring more workers in the future. Tired of fighting back the fears of getting kicked and pushed around before even receiving a call from the dairy people, the poor bruised soul seemed like he was about to give up all hopes in life.

One morning, the banana saw new neighbours moving into the lower storey of the building. And there he saw a beauty that he thought could never exist. So elegant - so majestic with a beautiful brown skin tone, and a distinct shine. Banana was mesmerized - it surely was a love at first sight!!!!

He kept on looking at her with his eyes charged with the light of wonder, hope and passion while she introduced herself to the other fellows in the "Baking Street", but as he saw her shaking hands with old Mr.Walnut from the upper most level, he simply couldnt resist the urge to feel that melting sensation of her beautiful skin, and rushed towards her yard.

The sinfully gorgeous- looking brown beauty, who appeared to have gained quite popularity among the locals within a few hours, also looked upon him and said, "Hi, I am Chocolate! Would you like to be friends with me?".

What happened next is up to the imagination, but here is what I think the end must have looked like.....

Stop wrinkling your nose now, if you´re so eager to know the rest, then head into your kitchen and witness the love story yourself:)

Chocolate Banana Bread

Ive spotted the recipe a few weeks ago at Coleen´s Recipes, one of the greatest food blogs, I love to visit every now and then, tweaked it a bit according to what I had on hand, and the outcome was just superb - an ultimate triumph of taste and texture!


Ingredients:

2 1/2 ripe bananas, mashed
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
Few drops of vanilla essence
1 1/2 cups plain, all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips (ca. 180 g)


Sieve together flour, cocoa powder and baking soda.

Beat sugar, oil, eggs and salt with an electric mixer.

Add in the mashed bananas.

Beat in the dry ingredients just until combined.

Fold in the chopped nuts as well as the chocolate chips.

Pour the mixture into a greased, lined bread loaf pan (mine is 28 x 9 x 7 cm). You may use two smaller ones and reduce the baking time accordingly. Bake in preheated oven at 170 C for about 1 hour and 20 minutes or as Coleen says, until tooth pick test clean, i.e. you might trace melted chocolate on the tooth pick but no wet batter. Tip: I also secured my pan with the foil packs to avoid hard, crusty sides. However, this wont avoid the little doming on top caused by the too narrow baking pan. Cool bread in the pan for 15 minutes before removing the lining.

Immediately wrap the hot bread with plastic or foil. I havent taken any pictures of this step but its very useful in case you prefer moist breads.

Cut in slices. I like eating it both ways, warm as well as cold. But in case you wish to enjoy the flavour of melting chocolate chips in your mouth, heat the bread in microwave for a few seconds.

Enjoy the beautiful love story that had you wanting to know more;)


Love