Avocado Chocolate Chip Quick-bread

The (future) avocato experiments with avocado!  Plenty of naysayers attempted to stifle my creative inspiration, and claimed my half-baked plan would birth the Frankenstein of breakfast breads.  Oh ye of little faith!  When was the last time I baked something inedible? That's what I thought.  Much like the misunderstood monster, my Franken-bread isn't a looker like it's tall, golden, banana blessed cousin.  It has a greenish cast and a sunken middle, but its physical imperfections conceal a soft, tender crumb, gilded with gooey chocolate.  If we can accept and adore carrot cake and zucchini bread why not avocado quick-bread?  The avocado can hold its own against the garish carrot or tedious zucchini any day.  Like the banana (the familiar and celebrated star of America's favorite quick-bread) the avocado is mild, creamy, buttery, and slightly sweet.  The avocado likes to associate with vegetables, but it is a fruit (well, according to University of California's Avocado Information page it's a very large berry...), and it's high time the avocado joined the ranks of other fruits in breakfast and dessert recipes!  And I'm not just talking about the garnish on huevos rancheros.  I do have to admit that I don't envision myself making avocado cobbler anytime soon so maybe we can just ignore the Avocado Information page and pretend an avocado is not a berry.

The Obscure Avocado

The more I thought about the similarities between avocados and bananas, the more obsessed I became with concocting an "avocadoey" version of banana bread.  My original plan was to bake my favorite banana bread recipe and substitute an equal amount of avocado for the banana.  It hadn't even occurred to me that there might be a legitimate avocado quick-bread recipe out there already!  Turns out there are quite a few, so I decided to conduct a taste-test bake-off: My recipe v. the Internet!  In the end I adapted both recipes to fit my own specifications, so I'm taking full credit for the deliciousness of either result, and blaming any failures on inherent flaws in the pre-adapted recipes (obviously, ha ha).

Battling breads

My banana bread adaptation wasn't as pretty as the "real" avocado bread, but I liked it better.  The taste volunteers couldn't agree on a hands-down winner, so I'm posting both versions.  Both were admittedly... different.  But really yummy!  We should all know by now that "different" is not a synonym for "bad."  So get over your prejudice against avocado desserts, and give one of these recipes a try.  If you can't bring yourself to serve Franken-bread at your afternoon book club meeting, you could wait until Halloween.  Its oddball color and unconventional flavor will blend in with the other kooky treats, and you can pass yourself off as festive instead of freakish - next to all the other ghoulish goodies, no one will notice your misbegotten monster.

Avocado Chocolate Chip Quick-bread I (Banana bread adaptation):

Preheat the oven to 350.  Butter and flour one loaf pan.

Cream 1 c. sugar with 1/2 c. softened butter.  Add two eggs and mix well.  In a separate bowl, stir together 1 and 1/4 c. flour, 1 t. baking soda, and 1/2 t. salt.  Add 1 1/2 c. mashed avocado to the egg mixture and mix well.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.  Stir in 6 oz. bittersweet chocolate chips.  Pour batter into greased pan and bake until a knife inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean (1 hr- 1.5 hrs).

Avocado Chocolate Chip Quick-bread II (spiced version):

Preheat the oven to 350.  Butter and flour one loaf pan.

Cream 1 c. sugar with 1/4 c. softened butter.  Add two eggs and mix well.  In a separate bowl, stir together 1 and 1/3c. flour, 1 t. baking soda, 1/2 t. baking powder, 1/2 t. salt, 1/2 t. cinnamon, and 1/2 t. allspice.  Add 1 and 1/2 c. mashed avocado and 1/4 c. buttermilk to the egg mixture.  Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined.  Stir in 6 oz. bittersweet chocolate chips.  Pour batter into greased pan and bake until a knife inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean (1 hr - 1.25 hrs).

Don't knock it 'till you've tried it!