Choco Chip Banana Bread

When I first ventured into the egg-less baking, my mom persuaded me to try bananas as a foolproof egg substitute. At that point, I was well focussed on attempting at other substitutes, especially the ones that could pair well with varied flavors. Baking with bananas did not strike my chord much. That's because bananas have a characteristic flavor of their own that can disguise other flavors in my bakes. So I refrained using them for long.

Not that I had given up baking with eggs completely, but I was immensely happy with the results I achieved with other alternatives and that deterred me from using eggs for quite sometime.

Bananas are so common at our place that there's virtually not a single day when we go without them. This time however we had a few excess of them and over a few days, a couple of bananas had been glaring at me on the table top with their pale looks. They seemed less consumable as is and I had to either toss them to the waste bin or make something out of them. Though the tossing rarely happens. After using a pair of them in rasayana and another pair in sheera for our breakfast, I was left with another 2 of them. My husband pointed me out that it's time I should bake a Banana Bread. I was intimidated by that thought as it was the best I could do with my dying fruits.

I baked a banana bread once earlier, just a few weeks ago as an experimental effort. Back then, they turned out quite fudge-y rather than 'bread like'. But that did not ruin it's taste and flavor. It was loved by everyone. I modified my recipe this time and the bread actually turned out amazingly good. It had a perfect texture, had baked beautifully and the flavors of dark chocolate chips mingled gorgeously well with the bananas.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

INGREDIENTS

2-3 small ripe bananas
1 cup flour (160 gm)
1/4 cup oil (40 gm)
1/2 cup sugar (70 gm)
1/4 cup milk or soy milk (40 ml)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup dark chocolate chips (40 gm)

DIRECTIONS

Blend milk or soy milk with bananas. Add the oil. Add in the flour, the sugar, the baking powder and soda and mix with a wooden spoon. Finally introduce the chocolate chips.

Transfer to a clean bread tin. Bake on 180 deg C for 40-45 mins, till the top is golden brown and a skewer inserted comes out clean. Allow to cool down on a rack, cut into slices and serve.

I cross my heart to say, this is by far the easiest and the most loved bread I have attempted. I mean, the ingredients are simple, there is no fuss with the recipe, it was an absolute solace to bake these. I love my bakes warm and these were no exceptions. As they baked and I took them out of the oven, I had little patience to wait for them to cool. In fact what you see here was cut warm.

The banana flavors were prominent on first of the bake. Surprisingly, they subsided and they could hardly be noticed the next day. I love my cakes when they have the moist crumb and I can tell you, these were not anything less than perfect!