Chocolate Banana-Pecan-Coconut-Chocolate Chip Bread

Tonight I didn't feel like doing a lot of cooking....but ONLY because I felt like doing a little baking!  I put together a quick whole wheat Boboli pizza for hubby and I to share...it was quick and easy and helped me use up some of my peppers and tomatoes.

Recently, I've been looking for a way to use up a bunch of overly ripe bananas sitting on my counter, but didn't feel like making regular banana bread.  So I found several recipes I kind of liked and made a few modifications and additions and it is in the oven baking as I type this.  So, in honor of today being "Leap Day", I made a Chocolate Banana-Pecan-Coconut-Chocolate Chip Bread.  Essentially it is a banana bread made using cocoa powder in the batter, so the bread itself is chocolate.  To that, I added bananas, toasted pecans, coconut and dark chocolate chips.  Before popping it in the oven I sprinkled it with a couple tablespoons of brown sugar, a tip that I had read in one of the many recipes I reviewed.  This bread was quick and easy to put together and used up all but one of my lonely little overripe bananas.

This bread surprisingly was not too sweet (which I actually prefer)...if you like a sweeter bread, you could substitute either milk chocolate chips or white chocolate chips to add more sweetness.  It would probably also be good with Reese's peanut butter chips too.  If you want it to be more "cake sweet", you could increase the sugar a little.  The unsweetened cocoa along with the dark chocolate chips lessened the sweetness of this bread.  Personally, I like it just the way it is.

Below is the recipe as well as a few pictures!  Enjoy.

Main ingredients

Wet and dry ingredients all mixed together

Chopped toasted pecans and dark chocolate chips waiting their turn to "leap" into the batter above

Batter spread into the loaf pan...waiting to be baked

Approximately 1 hour later, it's out of the oven

Brown sugar crust on top

BOOM!

BOOM BOOM!!

This just wouldn't feel like my blog without at least one BOOM (an up close and personal) picture!  ;-)

Voila

BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!

Chocolate Banana-Pecan-Coconut-Chocolate Chip Bread

Ingredients:

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 large eggs, beaten

1/2 cup butter (1 stick), melted and cooled

1-1/2 cups bananas, mashed

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup pecans, chopped and toasted

2/3 cup dark chocolate chips (60% cacao), or your favorite chips

1/4 cup coconut, shredded or flaked, optional

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour bottom and sides of a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl whisk together flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder and baking soda. 

In a medium-sized bowl combine the mashed bananas, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla. 

With a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, fold the wet ingredients (banana mixture) into the dry ingredients until just combined and batter is thick and chunky. Fold in the nuts, coconut and chocolate chips.  Scrape batter into prepared pan and sprinkle the top of the bread with brown sugar (optional).

Bake until bread rises and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55 to 65 minutes. Cool in pan on a wire rack and then carefully remove the bread from the pan. Can be served warm or at room temperature. Cover and store at room temp for several days, or freeze for longer storage.