Ahhhh… if you love chocolate, bananas, and zero refined sugars - you will absolutely LOVE this recipe. 


My two favorite things to make and eat are chocolate cake and banana bread, so this was always my goto recipe to combine both. I would make five batches in a week - no joke. After my sister had her first son, we all became super cautious about what ingredients we bring into our homes. It was like a switch, so many things were all of a sudden vetoed! Refined sugar being on top of that list. 


Once Alexander turned two, and he discovered his love for chocolatey yum yums too, we had to make adjustments to share our favorite recipes and cakes with him. Thanks to Alexander, we now have the BEST chocolate banana bread recipe.  


A little background story first. We grew up with eight banana trees outside our kitchen door. We all loved bananas, but there were always so many leftovers that would perfectly ripen to make for some super moist banana bread. We literally would have an entire banana branch hanging in the kitchen - seriously, how many bananas can a person eat? My mom started to pack and freeze them if she didn’t make it in time to bake them into bread while they were ripe. Best idea ever, by the way! I always have a bag or container of frozen ripe bananas in my freezer ready to go! 


I cannot stress enough on ripe bananas for this recipe - Overripe bananas! They make everything so much better. Also, something else I love to do is mix up the cocoa. I always have a pack of dark cocoa in my cupboard. I usually mix it into the 1/2 cup of Dutch press cocoa to add a little bit of a dense and decadent flavor. 


So here we go, the ingredients:


• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa 
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups of mashed overripe bananas
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/4 cup melted unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 large egg 
• 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 and 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips (separated) 


And now for the fun part…. Instructions!


1. Start by preheating your oven to 350F. Prep a 9x5 inch loaf pan by greasing it with butter, a little oil, or nonstick cooking spray and set it aside. 
2. Next, whisk together the dry ingredient. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Then move on to the wet ingredients!
3. Mash the bananas, either with a fork or with the mixer. Add the honey till slightly combined. Then add butter and oil till combined. Stir in the egg and vanilla extract till the mixture is all combined and smooth. Next, add the wet and dry ingredients together!
4. Add in the dry ingredients, not all at once. Stir in little by little, but be careful not to overdo the mixing. Stir in 3/4 of the chocolate chips and save the remaining.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and use the remaining chocolate chips for the top go the cake. 
6. Bake for 50-60 minutes, check the cake around 50-55 minutes since ovens may vary. When checking the bread with a toothpick, keep in mind the batter is stuffed with chocolate chips in case you get a lot of chocolate on the toothpick. Remove bread when the toothpick comes out clean. 
7. Let the pan cool on a wire rack or 15-20 minutes. Make sure no edges of the bread are stuck to the pan.
8. Remove from pan and let cool on the wire rack. Ahhh.. at this point, I’m already holding the knife in my hand.

My absolute favorite recipe so far has to be these Meghle cookies. When Alexander was born, I was in charge of prepping the meghle. One day while I was making a batch of Meghle, I was staring at the spices as I was stirring the pudding in the pot, and I thought, hmmm, let’s put them into my favorite cookie dough recipe and see what happens?! 

So here it is, a soft slice cookie to match the traditional Meghle pudding. Yields about 20 cookies.

Ingredients: 
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 and 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
* 6 teaspoons ground cinnamon
* 5 teaspoons ground caraway
* 2 teaspoons ground anise seed
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature 
* 1 cup packed light
* 1 large egg, room temperature
* 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
* Shredded coconut and/or ground pistachios for rolling (optional)
Instructions:
1. Mix the flour, baking soda, cornstarch, cinnamon, caraway, anise seed, and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk the butter and brown sugar together until no brown sugar lumps remain. Whisk in the egg, then whisk in the vanilla. 
3. Mix wet ingredients and the dry ingredients with a large spoon or rubber spatula. The dough will be thick and soft. Cover the dough and chill for at least 2 hours or up to 3 days. Chilling is mandatory. 
4. Take the dough out of the refrigerator and allow to slightly soften at room temperature for 10 minutes if you had it chilling for more than 2 hours.
5. Preheat the oven to 165°C. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
6. Roll cookie dough balls into shredded coconut and ground pistachios (optional). 
7. Bake for 15-18 minutes, depending on the oven until the edges are golden brown.