TRIPLE CHOCOLATE BANANA BREAD

Triple Chocolate Banana Bread – this EASY banana bread recipe makes the BEST banana bread! It’s my mom’s banana bread recipe and thanks to my partnership with Almond Breeze, it’s got TRIPLE the chocolate!

As you all know, my daughter loves dancing. This year she is on a jazz production team at the local studio; it’s kind of a competition team light. The regular competition teams require 5-7 hours of dance per week, plus do all the competitions (about one a month January-July). We only have 2 hours of dance and 2 competitions, which I needed to ease myself into this whole “dance mom” life. Even though I am the furthest thing from a dance mom, I’m happy she found something she loves. She even tried out for – and made – the middle school dance team for next year.

Last weekend we had the second of two competitions. Luckily this one was close, only a 30 minute drive, in downtown Sacramento. The way these comps work is that you’re in limbo until a few days before and then you get your time of arrival, which is two hours before your dance time. Jordan’s call time was at 7:43am. In the morning. On a Saturday. **crying**

Basically that meant that we had to get up earlier on Saturday than we do for school during the week, so breakfast had to be FAST. Luckily, I still had some of the triple chocolate banana bread left over. Sure, it’s full of chocolate, but it’s banana bread, and I served with with eggs. That’s a good breakfast, right? 

Ingredients

1½ cups flour
½ cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ cup butter
¼ cup brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
2 eggs
4 small bananas, mashed (approx. 1⅓ cups)
½ cup chocolate chips
Topping
¼ cup half & half
2 tablespoons brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon butter
½ teaspoon vanilla
6 tablespoons chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease & flour a 9×5 loaf pan.
Combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and baking powder in a large bowl. Set aside.
Cream butter and sugars together until fluffy. Stir in eggs and bananas. Add banana mixture and chocolate chips to flour mixture. Stir just until combined.
Bake 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Topping
Heat half & half and brown sugar over medium heat until brown sugar has dissolved and tiny bubbles start to form on the edges. Stir in vanilla and butter until melted and turn off heat. Add chocolate chips and do not stir, let sit 2-3 minutes.
Whisk chocolate chips until smooth. Cool completely and drizzle over bread.