100 Chips Banana Bread

Yesterday Thor and I had the honour of attending a 100th birthday party. The party was for a client of Thor's, Roy Abel, born in 1911....just think about that...2 world wars, depression, civil rights, he was basically around for everything in the 20th century and heard first hand stories about the 19th from his father and grandfather...... You will probably have a hard time believing me when I tell you that this centurion was working the room like a champ at his 100th birthday. Walking around, greeting everyone by name, asking about their family members by name...did I mention that he still drives!

Well, you are probably wondering how all this relates to a banana bread recipe. Thor and I were very excited to receive the invite to Roy's birthday but he did state on there that he did not want any gifts. Apparently he received a lot of books at his 99th and wanted a break from that! But, ever the socially traditional English woman that I am, I could not show up empty handed!! So I decided to bake something...and then I decided to be cheesy and correlate it to his 100th birthday and thus 100 Chips Banana Bread. 

SO, now you are thinking that I am going to get on with the recipe but HA! Well actually I'm guessing most readers did not even read this and are already at the recipe, which is OK. But I have to tell you about a little dilemma I face when cooking and baking for others. If I am to make any recipe for myself I like to play and make it ridiculously healthy. I really enjoy these items but I know that when someone is not expecting it the item with just taste "different" to them. However, I feel as though I am doing a disservice to the world when I give dishes away with butter and sugar and refined and processed ingredients....I cant do it..... 

I tried to find a happy medium with this banana bread, and while I didn't get to taste it, it smelled WONDERFUL!

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups Whole Wheat Flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp Cinnamon

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs (I had some cute little fresh eggs so I used three)

1/3 cup unsweetened Apple Sauce

1 TBS vanilla extract

4 Ripe Bananas, mashed

100 chocolate chips (and yes I counted)

1. Preheat oven to 375. Lightly grease and flour a 9x5 loaf pan.

2. In a large bowl stir together dry ingredients. Add the wet and mix well. At this point you could stir in some raisins or nuts if you so desire....  Pour batter into loaf pan. Here I sprinkled my 100 chips on top and then just poked them around so all the chocolate is in the top inch of the banana bread.

3. Bake in oven for 45- 60 minutes, until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Mine just took the 45.

Wowzers!!!! Allow to cool before attempting to remove from the pan.

Packaged and ready to go! A sweet treat that I feel good about giving and he can feel good about eating!

If you make this please post a comment letting me know what you think!