Chocolate Chip Banana Bread (eggless)

Our new pooch

Oh man, it's been awhile since my last post. I haven't really been cooking that much new stuff recently... been focused a little bit more on other big life changes. We adopted a dog! With that big change - I'm sure you will see some homemade doggie treats in an upcoming blog post or two - if you have a good recipe, feel free to send it my way! Would love to test it out.

With that said, I had bought some bananas that I didn't end up eating and decided it was time to tackle the banana bread again... dun dun DUN! As always, I never have any eggs in my house - no one eats them so why buy them! It also means that I'm always cooking without eggs or making some neat substitues. This recipe is delicious. No jokes. It is good. It is fantastic. It turned a non-banana bread eater into a banana bread lover.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread (eggless with oatmeal)
1 loaf

Ingredients:

• 3 ripe bananas - medium size
• 1/4 cup of melted butter
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 1/3 cup of white AP flour
• 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour
• 1/3 cup rolled oats
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 tablespoon sour cream
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Chocolate chips - as many as you want, I used around 1/4 of a 12oz bag

Steps:

1. Preheat your oven to 400degreesF
2. Plop your bananas into a bowl and mash them up really well. 
3. Add in the remaining ingredients and mixed it all together.
4. Grease your loaf pan with a little cooking spray - I also usually line the pan with tin foil and spray that too, it makes it easier to get the loaf out of the pan. 
5. Turn down the heat on the oven to 350degreesF
6. Pour in the mix and bake for 50 minutes. The mix will NOT fill up the pan, BUT the bread will rise a little so don't worry! 
7. After around 45 to 50 min, do the toothpick test - if it comes out clean take out the loaf and let it rest for 20 minutes before removing from the pan. 
8. Enjoy!

Almost Vegan Chocolate Banana Bread

Summertime is not baking time for me. It's too darn hot. I also don't have a dish washer so baking sometimes involves too many dishes. But last night I was inspired, inspired by bananas.

About a week ago my friends at Equal Exchange hooked me up with some of their Organic Cocoa Powder and I thought - bananas, chocolate - yes. I would like to eat that! Equal Exchange is a great brand - we drink their coffee at work and you can feel good about making a purchase with them since it's fairly traded. Yay!

I call this ALMOST vegan because I used butter. Real tasty buttery goodness butter. And real milk. But if you're vegan or need to bake for a vegan, feel free two swap those two out.

Almost Vegan Chocolate Banana Bread
Ingredients:

• 1 cup All Purpose Flour
• 1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 Allspice, ground
• 1/2 cup butter (or you could sub with vegan butter)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 3 1/2 very ripe bananas, mashed (I leave mine a little chunky because I like biting into a bit of banana)
• 1/2 milk (I used lactaid because that's all I had)
• 1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1/4 cup Equal Exchange Organic Coco Powder

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 350degrees
2. Mix together the milk and apple cider vinegar and set aside
3. In a large bowl, combine butter and sugars so it's nice and creamy
4. Mix in the milk combination, bananas, vanilla extract and almond extract
5. Add in the coco powder till completely combined

6. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, salt, baking soda, allspice
7. Add the wet and the dry ingredients together slowly to ensure the mixture is completely mixed

8. Take a baking loaf pan and either butter, or spray non-stick spray so you can get the loaf out of the pan. OR you can use parchment paper OR you can be a little creative like me, and butter up a piece of tin foil and line the pan with it.
9. Pour the mixture into the pan and spread out evenly. It is a bit thick. (I topped this one with a few sliced almonds b/c it's pretty)

10. Bake for about 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from the middle of the loaf.
11. Set aside and let cool a bit in the pan, then set on a cooling rack for a few hours till completely cooled before slicing. If you eat it hot - it's a bit dryer than if you let it sit overnight. Just an FYI.

Happy Eating!

And just because it was beautiful out yesterday, here's a nice shot of Boston I took.