Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

"Thank-you" are two words that are rarely valued now. We expect people to be good to us. If they do any favor or do a good job, we take it for granted. That may explain the reason why relationships, whether formal or personal, gets so strained these days. The level of courtesy is unfortunately on a dip. I always prompt my kids to say "thank you" to anybody who does them a good. They do forget but as soon as I tell them, they say it. Maybe it takes time nowadays for kids to get it in because they don't see others doing it. It is seriously a sad state of affairs... Of late, I learned that there is a way of expressing our thanks in Islam, by saying "JazakAllah Khair", which means "May the Almighty recompense you with goodness." Definitely this is a much better way of saying thank you plus an additional way to earn goodness from the Almighty.

This bread was a "thank you" bake for my friend, who took care of the kids when we were staying at our old place. Since having a maid is a Herculean task in this part of the world, many of the working parents resort to babysitting facilities to take care of their children in their absence. For many housewives, it is an added income and support for their husbands. My friend became my friend because her daughter was Rasha's classmate in grade 1. When I knew she was taking care of other kids, I asked her and though her hands were full and she could have said no to me, she very wholeheartedly took them in and took care of them very well. In fact, Azza, who is a very reserved character, struggled during the initial couple of weeks but with her persistence, now enjoys the company of other children, which is such a relief to me. Close to the time when we were in the process of shifting, I baked this delicious bread to her. Since her husband is a fitness freak, I added more wholewheat flour than all-purpose flour to this bake - normally, when I bake for somebody else, I always use only all-purpose flour as not everybody would appreciate the dense texture that wholewheat flour lends to bakes. I was glad that they absolutely loved it. I still keep in touch with her, because I am thankful to Allah and her for giving her when I was really in a fix when umma had to constantly travel.

Off to this healthy bread...


Ingredients:

1 cup wholewheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs, slightly beaten
3 bananas, mashed
1/4 cup oil
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Grease a large loaf pan.

In a bowl, mix all the dry ingredients well. Add the eggs, banana and oil onto it and mix well till incorporated. The batter will be thick. Add the chocolate chips and give just one mix - do not overmix. Pour into the pan.

Bake for 60 minutes till skewer comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then invert onto a cooling rack. Cool completely before slicing and serving.

I brushed the top of the loaf with melted chocolate.