Fudgey Banana Brownies

I recently learned about freezing ripened bananas for later use. So whenever we end up with bananas that we don't eat up, they end up in my freezer. With that said, I have a lot of browned bananas stocked up in my freezer already. So when I noticed that I had 2 more bananas browning up, I had to think of something to do with them quickly. So I wouldn't have to add to my collection of frozen ones.

Luckily, Beantown Baker, one of my favorite blogs, has dedicated this whole week to banana recipes. Her recipe the other day for Fudgey Banana Brownies caught my eye. I once had a banana flavored chocolate cake at a friend's baby shower and I remembered how much I loved it. So I thought this recipe would be a nice duplicate to that cake.

I'm not sure if I did something wrong. Maybe its due to the fact that this recipe doesn't require eggs. But the brownie was rather dry. Not the soft and chewy brownie I'm accustomed to. The flavor was great, but I just wasn't happy with the texture. Not sure if I'll be making this one again.

1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 medium bananas, mashed

2 cups flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

1) Preheat oven to 35o deg F. Lightly grease a 8 x 8 baking pan.

2) In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.

3) In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter, shortening, sugar, brown sugar on medium speed until light and creamy. Add bananas and vanilla and beat until well combined. Set the speed to low and add dry ingredients. Continue beating until combined. Fold in chocolate chips.

4) Press batter into prepared baking pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until toothpick test comes out clean. Cool before cutting.