Banana Bread with Chocolate

This is a very majestic banana bread. The photo may not encapsulate that as well as I hoped -- perhaps due to my continued bad habit of smothering every baked good with Greek yogurt and Sarabeth preserves, then taking the picture. But believe me, it's good. I was hoping the entire cake would last me a week of breakfast but I only got by on a few days. Still, not bad for having passed a half of it on to Kat, my baking partner, and a slice stolen here and there from a boy on his way out early in the morning.

Recipe notes:

Instead of chocolate chips Kat cut up a bar of dark chocolate. I don't like too-sweet baked goods, so the bitterness of the dark chocolate was perfectly off-set against the bread. We discovered that a good way to cut a bar of chocolate up without it crumbling is by heating the bar slightly so that it's just a tad soft, then proceed to cut into pieces.

Instead of regular yogurt, I used Greek yogurt since that's all I had. It turned out just fine, but I noticed the bread was very dense, perhaps denser than the author of this recipe may have intended.

Banana Bread with Chocolate
Adapted from A Homemade Life's "Banana Bread with Chocolate and Crystallized Ginger" as posted here. I did not use the crystallized ginger because I didn't have any on hand, and also because I wanted a more traditional banana bread this time.

6	tablespoons unsalted butter
2	cups all-purpose flour
3/4	cup sugar
3/4	teaspoon baking soda
1/2	teaspoon salt
3/4	cup semisweet chocolate chips
2	large eggs
3	large ripe bananas, mashed
1/4	cup well-stirred whole-milk plain yogurt (not low or nonfat)
1	teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Set a rack in the center of the oven, and preheat to 350F. Grease a 9- by 5-inch loaf pan or an 8-inch round cake pan with cooking spray or butter. (note: I used a round cake pan. It was my first time baking banana bread in a round cake pan and it was truly great. I will do it this way from now on. I cannot explain why.)

2. Melt the butter on the stove or in a microwave and set aside to cool slightly.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Add the chocolate chips and whisk well to combine. Set aside.

4. In a medium bowl, lightly beat the eggs with a fork. Add the mashed banana, yogurt, melted butter, and vanilla and stir to mix well. Pour the banana mixture into the dry ingredients, and stir gently with a rubber spatula, scraping down the sides as needed, until just combined. Do not overmix. The batter with be thick and somewhat lumpy, just make sure all the flour has been incorporated. Scrape the batter into the loaf pan and smooth the top.

5. Bake into the loaf is a deep shade of golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 50 mins to an hour. If the loaf seems to be browning too quickly, tent with foil.

6. Cool the loaf in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Then tip out onto the rack, and let it cool completely before slicing. The loaf freezes well wrapped in plastic wrap and again in foil to protect from freezer burn.