Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Who says you have to make something pink or red for Valentine's Day? Not this girl. While I do enjoy heart shaped candies that tell your crush to 'Fax Me' and red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, I just wasn't feeling it this holiday. Instead all I wanted was bananas and chocolate. It started this weekend. I got a ton of bananas on sale and happily went on my way eating them. Except I got bored. fast. So I decided to melt some chocolate and dip my bananas in that. Now that's what I call dinner on a Friday night. With bananas and chocolate on the brain I thought this bread would be perfect and I was soooo right. It has a moist crumb,  crisp edges, just enough banana flavor and chocolate chips in every bite. Perfection. So instead of giving you X's and O's, red and pink, and horrible chalky heart candies, I give you this. If this doesn't scream love I don't know what does.

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 bananas, mashed
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a 9-in x 5-in x 3-in loaf pan with cooking spray. Ina  large bowl, cream together sugar and shortening. Then, beat in the eggs, vanilla, and mashed bananas. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. In a separate bowl, combing flour, baking soda and salt. Then slowly add in the flour mixture as you mix on low speed. Do not over mix. Stir in the chocolate chips. Spoon the batter into the greased loaf pan. Bake for 55-70 minutes, until the center is cooked through and the outside is browned. If your bread is getting brown too quickly, you can tent it with some foil for half of the baking time or bring it down to 325F half way through and just bake it for a little longer. Mine worked perfectly, uncovered at 350F just under 60 minutes.

Makes 1 loaf of bread, approximately 16 servings.


Source: Recipe from All Recipes