Let’s kick off this week with some bread.
Brown bananas are a little bit ugly, but beautiful at the same time and filled with so much delicious potential!
What to make, what to make… I was brainstorming as I watched these bananas slowly turn browner with each passing day. Then I decided: chocolate banana bread. With some cacao nibs. And a little bit of Greek yogurt. Delicious, yes?
Have you ever heard of or tried cacao nibs? They are basically pieces of cacao beans that have been chopped up and roasted. If you were to grind them up with some sugar you’d have chocolate! Cacao nibs themselves aren’t very sweet, but still have a light chocolate flavor to them. They also have a nice crunch, kind of like a roasted coffee bean. As an added bonus cacao nibs are pretty healthy. They are full of antioxidants as well as magnesium, calcium, iron, zinc, and potassium. Plus, they can elevate your mood and give you an energy boost! Soooo… let’s eat some.
My mom had given me some a while back to try, but I had stuck them in my cupboard and forgot about them. Out of sight, out of mind, you know? Then when I was in Costa Rica I came across some dark chocolate covered cacao nibs, which led me to remember the long-lost cacao nibs in my cupboard, which led me to buy the chocolate covered ones, which led me to want to make something delicious with them, which is now leading me to this bread with my brown bananas.
Isn’t that a nice little chain of events? It led to such a delicious place.
This chocolate banana bread isn’t overly sweet. The melted butter and Greek yogurt give it the perfect level of moist-ness (is that a word?) and density. The cacao nibs add a nice crunch. You can have it for breakfast with some jam or, better yet, some almond butter. Or you could have it for a mid-day snack or a post-dinner dessert. Or you could just eat it all day, every day for the rest of your life, but I’ll let you make that decision.
So the next time you have some brown bananas on your counter staring you in the face, you should probably make this bread. You can track down cacao nibs (plain, chocolate covered, or both) in Costa Rica, but also Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s if that’s more convenient for you. If you aren’t interested in cacao nibs, that’s ok! You can replace them with chopped nuts, chocolate chips, or nothing at all.
- 1½ cup all purpose flour
- ½ cup cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup butter (1 stick)
- 2 eggs
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- 3 ripe bananas, mashed (~1-1 ½ cups)
- ¼ cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cup cacao nibs (I used a mix of plain and chocolate covered cacao nibs)
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x5 loaf pan.
- In a medium size bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In a small saucepan, melt the butter. Let is cool slightly.
- Whisk in the eggs. Then add the brown sugar, bananas, yogurt, and vanilla extract. Whisk until smooth.
- Add in the dry ingredients and stir until combined, being careful not to over mix.
- Stir in the cacao nibs.
- Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 40-50 minutes, or until you can insert a toothpick in the center and it comes out clean.
- Let the bread cool in the pan for 30 minutes, then take it out and let it cool completely on a wire rack.
- Slice, serve, and enjoy!
The cacao nibs can be replaced with a mix of chopped nuts and chocolate chips.
[…] yeah. What I’m trying to say is this stuff is really good. Basic banana bread and chocolate cacao nib banana bread are good too, but this chocolate chip raspberry banana bread is like really […]