Tasty Tuesday - Chocolate Coconut Banana Bread

It's been a few weeks since I've shared a recipe, not for lack of good recipes, I just get busy, or take a nap, and don't get around to it.  I had another recipe I was planning to share today, but I made this banana bread this morning and thought it was worth sharing.

I really like the America's Test Kitchen banana bread recipe, but it is a bit too sweet. While looking in their cookbook today, yes I still use a few cookbooks even though Pinterest is my go to, I saw that there were a couple variations on their traditional banana bread recipe. One was with shaved chocolate and one was with coconut and macadamia nuts. Rob doesn't particularly care for nuts in baked goods but he loves chocolate, and I love coconut, so I decided to mix the two. I also decided to cut the sugar way down.

It turned out really well.  Better than a lot of other banana bread variations I've tried. Nutella banana bread was a huge let down. I will definitely be making this again, soon. There is also an orange spice variation that sounds perfect for the holidays.

Chocolate, Coconut, Banana Bread

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 very ripe bananas
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs
1/4 cup yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup shaved sweetened coconut
12 cup mini chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350*. Spread shaved coconut on baking sheet.  Bake for approximately 6 minutes or until golden brown. Stir every two minutes. Set aside to cool when done.

2. Melt butter and set aside to cool.

3. Mix flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a bowl and set aside.

4. Mash bananas with a spoon in a separate large bowl. Add eggs, yogurt, cooled butter and vanilla. Whisk until combined.

5. Fold the banana mixture into the flour mixture using a rubber spatula. Fold in the coconut and chocolate chips. Do not over mix. The batter will be chunky and thick.

6. Spread batter in a greased bread pan. Bake at 350* for 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the loaf sit in the pan for 10 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool.

Notes: The original recipe calls for 3/4 cup sugar. If you like your bread sweeter, use more sugar. The recipe calls for plain yogurt, but I used banana whole milk YoBaby, as it's what I had on hand. I'm sure greek yogurt would work as well. The recipe says to let the bread sit for an hour until fully cooled. I don't have the patience for that, and I like warm banana bread right out of the oven. I cut it within 15 minutes of being out of the oven and it was glorious.


I also posted a recipe makeover to my Broccoli Quiona Casserole recipe. The kids love the broccoli bites and will eat the every day. Brooke has been super picky lately, so I keep lots of these on hand in the freezer.