Whole Wheat Chocolate Banana Bread

Baking options have been slim lately because my kitchen stock is nearly depleted. I’ve now used up the last of my all purpose flour, granulated sugar, light brown sugar, powdered sugar, dark cocoa powder, and probably some other ingredients I can’t remember at the moment. I was actually down to my last half a stick of butter, but I broke down and bought some more on my way home from work last night. I’m sorry, but a kitchen without butter is not a kitchen I want to be in.

The last time I went grocery shopping, I thought I was in the mood for bananas, but as it turns out, I wasn’t. Which is how I still had 4 bananas left a week and a half later. Banana bread it is! It took some searching to find a recipe that worked with the supplies I had on hand, but I think I found a good one. It turns out I didn’t even need the butter I bought, so I can keep it for another recipe in the future.

I’m surprised that a recipe that only called for a tablespoon of oil (I used butter because I didn’t have any oil) tasted so good. I’m used to banana breads needing a stick or more, so this one from All Recipes was a nice change. I made a few alterations, so here is my version of the recipe.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Banana Bread

(Yields 1 9×5 loaf pan)

Wet Ingredients

1/3 cup skim milk

1 teaspoon lemon juice

2 large eggs

3/4 cup granulated sugar

4 large bananas

1 tablespoon melted butter

Dry Ingredients

1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup dark cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

dash of cinnamon

dash of nutmeg

1. Preheat oven to 375*F. Spray a 9×5 inch loaf pan with cooking spray.
2. Stir the skim milk and lemon juice together in a glass measuring cup; let stand until curdled, about 30 minutes.
3. Beat the eggs and sugar together with a wooden spoon until smooth.
4. Mix in the mashed bananas, milk mixture, melted butter, and vanilla extract.
5. Combine the whole wheat flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
6. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients just until everything is combined.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
8. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour.
9. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.