Chocolate Banana Loaf

          My good friends Colby and Nana have convinced me to start blogging, so here goes.  I came up with this recipe just a few days ago out of a need to use up some very ripe bananas; ones in which the peels were almost completely brown.  I had thought about making a classic banana nut bread, but as those are so often found I decided to turn up the volume by adding cocoa powder, since anything with chocolate just simply melts-in-your-mouth, right?
         Of the various types of cooking, baking seems to be one of the most difficult.  Flour, sugar, eggs, leavening agents, a form of fat (butter or oil), and often some type of an acidic ingredient are used.  Breads and cakes that do not use yeast as their leavening agent are usually termed quick breads, such as this chocolate banana loaf.  Others include, muffins, biscuits, pancakes, and scones.  For this recipe, I used the muffin method.  It is characterized by the addition of the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients; the fat used should be in liquid form too.


Chocolate Banana Loaf
Dry:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder, recommended: Hershey's
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon

Wet:

• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract, not vanilla flavoring
• 2 xl eggs, room temperature
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 3 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 very ripe banana, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350˚F.  Butter and flour an 8.5''x4.5''x2.5'' loaf pan.

In a medium sized bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.  And pour into the bowl of a electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.

In the same bowl, combine the vegetable oil, milk, vanilla, and eggs.  With the mixer on low speed, add the wet ingredients to the dry.  DO NOT OVER MIX, or the bread may turn out tough.  Add the sour cream and mix just until combined.  If there are lumps of flour still visible, don't worry as those will get absorb during baking.

GENTLY fold in the bananas.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 75 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.