“I want chocolate bread….”

Happy Holidays! The world may be topsy-turvy these days due to the pandemic, but some things never change. Pictures of tantalizing food make our mouths drool.

A co-worker posted on our Slack channel a picture of chocolate bread he had made using sourdough starter. It was gorgeous, and I immediately wanted it. Folks who have been reading my posts for a while, though, know that I am lazy so sourdough starter is not my cup of tea. You have to constantly “feed” the dough, and every week, you need to make bread, which I may or may not have the inclination to do. So, I wanted to come up with a quick bread which would satisfy my craving for a chocolate bread.

Folks who cook with chocolate already know that the biggest issue with making a chocolate bread or cookie is that they can be dry. And gluten free flours can also make breads dry. So, I had to think about the best way to keep the bread moist. Since I happened to have a bunch of ripe bananas handy, I opted to use those. I also used Hershey’s special dark unsweetened cocoa powder instead of the natural cocoa powder because it is less drying. And I opted to use a plant based oil, a dairy free milk, and eggs to add liquids to the recipe. To keep the sugar calories lower, I used dairy free mini chips so I could use less, and I opted for coconut sugar in place of white sugar. And because I didn’t want the bread to be gummy, which can happen with gluten free breads, I added some ground golden flaxseed.

The result was a delicious, moist chocolate bread which had the shape and ease of a bread but the fudginess of a chocolate cake. We have been enjoying the loaves this week with raspberry jam, tofu cream cheese, and on its own. Hope you enjoy it, too.

Chocolate Bread

(This recipe makes two loaves.)

Ingredients:

2 cups of gluten free flour, sifted* (I used King Arthur’s whole grain blend.)

1 cup Hershey’s special dark unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup ground golden flaxseed

4 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup dairy free mini chocolate chips (I used Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips.)

Six 6-inch medium ripe bananas (will puree)

1 tsp cinnamon

3/4 cup sweetener (I used coconut sugar.)

1 cup plant based oil (I used avocado oil.)

1/2 cup dairy free milk (I used an unsweetened soy milk.)

2 eggs, beaten

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup dairy free mini chocolate chips (This is a second one cup of chips.)

Baking Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and line two 9 x 5 loaf pans with parchment paper.
2. Mix together the flour, cocoa powder, flaxseed, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir in the chocolate chips, and set the dry ingredients aside.
3. Puree the bananas using a food processor or blender. (You don’t want to mash them because they are adding liquid, not texture.)
4. To the bananas, add cinnamon, sweetener, oil, milk, eggs and vanilla. Mix well.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and blend until well incorporated.
6. Evenly divide the batter between the two prepared loaf pans.
7. Sprinkle the tops of the batter with the second cup of mini chocolate chips, evenly dividing them between the two loaves.
8. Bake in the preheated oven for 50-60 minutes until the loaves are puffed, dry on top, firm to the touch, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (Mine took 55 minutes.)
9. Put the pans on a wire cooling rack and let them sit for 10-15 minutes.
10. Remove the loaves from the pan to the cooling rack and allow the breads to cool.

*When “sifted” comes after the ingredient, it means to measure first and then sift.