Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Bad bananas gone good


Last month my good buddy Aubrey posted about how she hates the smell of overripe bananas. I'm with ya, girl! When I'm pregnant, no smell sends me over the edge faster. And when I'm not pregnant I'm still a banana snob, only eating those that are a bright, even shade of yellow with just a hint of green. Once bananas start to get those little brown spots, it's all over; they're consigned to the freezer until I'm in the mood to bake banana bread.

Not long ago, Jim found a recipe on allrecipes.com that with some of his inspired tweaking, was really incredible. So good, I'm actually tempted to sit and stare at my bananas until they go spotty. Of course, I can't eat it now, but I'm waiting eagerly until we start our pre-Christmas baking frenzy. And in the meantime, I'm whipping up a batch because the temperature here is finally cooling down and I want to take some goodies to friends. If you live too far away to be on my delivery route, you should make some for yourself!


Chocolate Banana Bread

1 cup margarine, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
6 bananas, mashed
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup lite sour cream
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, cream together margarine, sugar and eggs. Stir in bananas and vanilla. Sift in flour, baking soda and cocoa; mix well. Blend in sour cream and chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of a loaf comes out clean.

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