Who doesn’t love a moist, flavorful slice of bread? This bread can be a dessert or a breakfast item. When it’s warm, you can eat it plain or add butter, your choice. As for me, this is one of my favorites, but I do not make it often as my husband is allergic to bananas. No kidding! Poor guy. My impetus for baking this usually because I bought a bunch of bananas and for one reason or another didn’t get to eat them all. As they are starting to get overripe, I know it’s time to make some bread. Most banana bread or muffin lovers can certainly understand this. So, enough with the introduction already, and on to the recipe.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar (minus 2 T)
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 6 T unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/4 cup plain yogurt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 very ripe bananas, mashed well (yielding ~1-1/2 cups)
• 1-1/2 ounces  (1/2 cup) bittersweet chocolate bits

Instructions

• Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
• Spray a 9×5″ loaf pan with non stick vegetable spray.

Use 2 separate bowls, one for dry ingredients, one for wet.

• Mix the flour, sugar, baking soda, chocolate and salt together in one bowl.
• Mix the mashed bananas, melted butter, eggs, yogurt and vanilla in the second bowl.

• Gently fold the banana mix into the flour mix with a rubber spatula. Mix until just combined.
• Using a rubber spatula, scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan and smooth.

• Give the loaf pan a firm shake to help the mix settle and smooth.
• Bake about 55 minutes, until golden brown and toothpick inserted into the center comes out with just a few crumbs attached.
• Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes.
• Remove from loaf pan and cool on a wire rack for at least one hour.

Ideas

• If you can find some banana yogurt, use it as a substitute for plain yogurt for an even more banana flavor.
• Some recipes recommend shaving the chocolate instead of using chips. This gives more uniform chocolate coverage throughout the bread. I like the chips as I prefer to have more concentrated chocolate sections in my bread, but your choice.