Gooey-licious Chocolate Banana Bread

Day 3 of chocolate week and my relish for the stuff has not at all abated. Signs of true love. This recipe is a keeper! Please make a loaf for yourself! You will go down in culinary history among anyone you serve it to, I assure you. :)  

I loved my mom's banana bread growing up. It filled the kitchen with the most comforting smell when it was baking and it was a true breakfast treat on fall mornings. Of course, in my prior picky-ness, I would request a nut-free batch be made for me. (I had a "texture thing"... such foolishness in retrospect). 

Now that I've embarked on a whole new lifestyle of learning to try and appreciate all sorts of foods (tonight I ate sauteed okra for the first time! It ROCKED my world!), I could eat all kinds of nuts by the handful if left to my own devices and couldn't love them in my baked goods more!

And so now I love this bread because it brings together three wonderful things: chocolate, bananas, and nuts! This melty, super-rich wonder is more like a Lydia-friendly brownie (and I do love brownies!) and my omnivorous home group friends couldn't stop raving about it! It was a bigger hit than I anticipated!

This time around I threw in extra bananas to compensate for not using refined sugar, added a handful of chocolate chips for pops of gooey sweetness, and used walnuts instead of pecans since those were the nuts I had on hand. This batch came out much moister and sweeter than my last attempt and I believe the extra bananas and chocolate chips are to thank for that. I also used whole wheat pastry flour and brown rice flour (instead of wheat flour) for a cakier consistency. I finally had molasses, too (my new favorite nutrient-packed sweetener, by the way), and the results of all these modifications were fabulous! A whole new comfort food, indeed!

Chocolate Banana Bread
Adapted from Healthier, Happier Jeffie's adaptations 

Servings per recipe: 12
Calories: 274; Fat: 11.8g; Sugar: 8.8g

5 ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup date sugar (can cut down to 1/4 cup)
2 tablespoons molasses
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour 
1 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cacao powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup walnuts or pecans
1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips

*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease 9x5 inch loaf pan and put aside. In large mixing bowl, mash bananas and  add applesauce, sugar, and molasses and whisk thoroughly. In another bowl, combine flour, cacao, baking soda, spices, and salt and whisk together. Sift dry ingredients into wet and mix with a wooden spoon until just combined. Fold in nuts and chocolate chips. Pour batter into pan and top with banana slices. Bake for 45-50 minutes until knife in center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool before serving.