Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

I've never made any type of "bread" from scratch before. But I've "seen" a lot of friends make this via their facebook updates, and I also saw some new fiber one muffins that were this flavor. So of course I had to reference my favorite website for recipes (www.allrecipes.com), I looked through all the possible ones, read all the reviews and found the perfect recipe.

Obviously it's a little more time consuming making something like this from scratch versus opening up a mix, but it was so worth the effort. And in reality the thing that took the longest was waiting for the bananas I bought to ripen up enough. Figures that when I want them to turn brown and gross they take there sweet time. Even though I bought bananas over a week ago and they were already yellow! Geesh!

I did make some minor modifications to make it somewhat healthier. I used butter instead of shortening, and miracle whip instead of mayo. I was hesitant to use the walnuts since I'm not a big nut person, but at the suggestion of a friend I chopped them up very fine in the food processor (she said the nuts are necessary to keep the bread moist). The final product is incredibly delicious, extremely moist, and sweet without being overly sweet.

Ingredients

• 1 cup shortening
• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 6 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition. Stir in the mayonnaise and bananas. Stir together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Blend the flour mixture into the banana mixture; stir just enough to evenly combine. Fold in the chocolate chips and walnuts.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean, about 50 to 75 minutes. Cool loaf in the pan for 20 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Amount Per Serving (original recipe) Calories: 327 | Total Fat: 14.6g | Cholesterol: 22mg