banana bread with chips, nuts and mango chunks

bob has a weakness for chocolate, and often has a secret desire to include chocolate chips in the team's banana bread, usually left unverbalized for the sake of compromise, so when a "healthy choice" chocolate chip banana bread including flaxseed meal ended up in his email box, how could it not be given a trial run? Chocolate mini-chips. Of which a few were left in the cabinet. Together with some mini-cinnamon chips sent by a sister-in-law from a favorite American company King Arthur Flour, whose headquarters is near her home. And a nice ripe mango that got cleaned and chopped up for breakfast since we were out of both strawberries and blueberries the very morning designated to try out the recipe. A big fat ripe one so there was plenty left over to contribute to the cake in the spirit of apple cake, but with a clear affinity to chocolate that mango that we have experienced in the past.

We used 1/2 c white whole wheat flour with 1 c white flour and it rose nicely. Next time we will reverse the ratio or go all white whole wheat to boost the nutritional profile. bob liked it. so did his mother-in-law. ani is not a dessert person, so her lack of enthusiasm doesn't count. You be the judge.

ingredients

bread stuff

1 1/2 c mashed ripe banana (we used 3 really ripe bananas)

1/3 c plain fat-free yogurt

5 T butter, melted

2 large eggs

1/3 c granulated sugar

1/3 c packed light brown sugar (we only had dark on hand, solid as soft rock, not the music kind, but sandstone)

1 1/2 c all-purpose flour (we used 1/2 c white whole wheat, 1 c all-purpose)

1/4 c ground flaxseed

3/4 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1/2 t ground cinnamon

1/8 t ground allspice

1/3 c semisweet chocolate minichips (we used 1/2 c, plus 1/3 dark chocolate chunks)

optional: 1/4 c cinnamon chips, if you have them
optional: flesh of one ripe mango, roughly chopped

1/3 c chopped walnuts, toasted (oops, we forgot to toast them)

cooking spray

finishers (we blew off this step)

1/3 c semisweet chocolate minichips

2 T fat free milk

instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Melt the butter in the microwave.
3. Spray your 9"x5" (nonstick) quick bread pan with cooking spray.
4. Toast the chopped walnuts, either on a cookie sheet in the oven or in a nonstick pan on the stovetop. Brings out the flavor if you have the extra time.
5. Bring your brown sugar to a usable state if it has been in the cabinet a while, we used the food processor and then left it in with the bananas.
6. Food process together the bananas, yogurt, butter and eggs into a smooth mixture and pour into a large mixing bowl.
7. Whisk together the flour (we sifted it with the spices), sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and allspice in a medium bowl.
8. Blend the dry stuff into the wet stuff with a spatula briefly.
9. Fold in the nuts and chips and mango if you want to try the fruit option.
10. Pour into your pan and bake 55 minutes, check for doneness with the toothpick cake test (if it comes out clean, you're done, if not, more time).
11. Cool 10 minutes in the pan. Then remove from the pan onto a wire rack.
12. If you want to go the extra mile, microwave the milk and extra chips on high for 30 seconds, stirring until smooth. Drizzle over the bread. We skipped this step the first time.

notes

1. Banana-Chocolate-Walnut Bread at My Recipes.com. We skipped the melted chocolate chip drizzle after baking topping.
2. Cinnamon chips, who would have known they exist, if not for a thoughtful sister-in-law in our case? From King Arthur Flour, an American food company we can be proud of.
3. bob likes the dark chocolate end of the spectrum (less damaging healthwise, maybe even good for you), so we had some extra dark chocolate chips lying around that we through into the mix too. The more the merrier.
4. We like banana bread and have tried many variations. For example: produce bread, pistachio banana bread surprise, "Nutella" gelato and egg-free chocolate banana bread?.
5. Illustrations available.