I’ve come to realize I’m pretty much a carbon copy of my mother.  For the most part this means we have a lot of the same mannerisms and similar speech patterns and sayings.  I’ve also been told we look a lot alike.  These are the things that other people see.

For us, the similarities mean we basically have ESP with each other.  We have fragmented conversations because it’s redundant to say every word out loud when you know what the other person means.

Though this connection is helpful, sometimes the similarities combine to too much of a good thing.  We’re both very strong minded, and we do not always appreciate compromise.  So we tend not to compromise and each do our own thing.  We also both love to cook/bake and plan family gatherings and menus.  When we have the family out to the summer house during the summer weekends we go through several iterations of menus and dishes to try.  We have trouble settling on one idea.

This past weekend, we went food shopping separately and not surprisingly we ended up with a lot of duplicates. This included an abundance of bananas.  What to do, what to do with too many bananas?

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Bread

Adapted from How Sweet It Is

Yields 2 8 x 4 loaves

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter (one stick)
• 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4-5 large ripe bananas
• 2 cups AP flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa
• 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup milk (any kind)
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350. Prepare 2 8 x 4 pans with non-stick spray and/or parchment.
2. Combine dry ingredients: flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt, cinnamon.  Set aside.
3. Cream together room temperature butter and peanut butter until light and fluffy.  Add sugars, mix. 
4. Add egg, vanilla, and mashed bananas.  Mix until well combined.

   

5. Slowly add dry mixture to wet, combine well but do not over mix.  Add milk.  Fold in chocolate chips.
6. Pour batter into loaf pans.  Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes or until tester comes out clean (might be longer).