Chocolate Avocado Quick Bread

I've been eating an abnormal amount of avocados lately. It's just been one of those phases. You know, the periods in your life where you become so obsessed with something you find yourself eating it everyday? This seems to happen to me all the time. As of late, it's guacamole. Multiple times a week, I've been finding myself at the grocery store picking up yet another 2 avocados. 2 avocados makes enough guacamole for me to eat for exactly 3 days. If I'm not sharing my guac, that is. I mix it with finely minced red onion, fresh cilantro from the garden, a little lime juice, and a smattering of kosher salt. It's guacamole perfection, every time. 

Remember my Kiwi Lime Pie? And all the kiwis and limes I got at my big-box store? Well, at that time, I also picked up a bag of beautiful avocados. That was a spectacular purchase. The avocados were pretty hard to the touch, and seemed to ripen in intervals. It seemed that 2 were ripe before I knew it, but the rest stayed hard. Then 2 more ripened. This seemed to happen for the whole bag! It was amazing. Pretty soon, I'd had enough guacamole, but I was left with 2 extra avocados.

What to do?

If bananas, and carrots, and zucchini, and lemons, and- pretty much anything else, actually- can make moist, delicious quick bread, couldn't avocado have a similar effect?

Why yes, yes it does.

I could not believe how light, airy, and just plain delicious this bread was. I literally could not stop eating it. I usually pawn my baked goods off on family and friends, but I had none of this left to share.

Of course, it could quite possibly be the addition of the chocolate that makes this irresistible. Chocolate just makes everything better, doesn't it?

So, did everyone have a great weekend? The hubby and I had a great weekend with the little bro. The hubs actually had to work on Saturday, so it was just me and the little bro. We ended up going for a long walk in the high humidity, about 5 miles. We called it a "cleansing" walk, I think we both lost 5 lbs in water weight. The hubby's uncle has been sneaking tomatoes onto my porch for the past week or so, so I had a glutton of tomatoes on my hands. I decided to turn them all into a batch of tomato soup that night. And since I've got more basil that I know what to do with, I turned the tomato soup into Caprese Soup. Sooooooo good.

Yesterday, since the hubby had the day off (Yippee!), we headed to West Virginia. We were all wanting to walk, so we decided to head to Beech Fork State Park. Crazily enough, neither the hubby nor I knew there was a beautiful state park in Huntington. They've got between 8-10 miles of hiking, so we decided to hike. We chose a shorter trail at 2.5 miles. It may have been short, but it was not an easy hike. There was lots of incline, and by the time we were done, we'd all broken a sweat. We saw a couple of deer, chipmunks, a much older and in way better shape guy who headed off on the 8 mile trail, and tons of bugs. We all felt we'd earned a cocktail by the time we made it back to the car.

Afterwards, we ended up taking the little brother to our favorite restaurant in Huntington, Black Sheep.

I cannot get enough of that restaurant! It's one of the very, very few unique restaurants in the area. We started with margaritas and specialty wings- golden friend, glazed with Sriacha butter, and topped with house-made pickles. They were absolutely amazing. All of us ended up ordering flocks of tacos (or taco trios, if you will). I think I was the only person who brought 1 lonely taco home. The rest were devoured.

And that 1 lonely taco? Gone by bed time!

So now it's the last day of the little bro's visit. *Tear* It went so fast! The little brother did point out 1 upside to him going home tomorrow- our new mattress arrives!! If that's the only trade-off I can get, I guess I'll take it :)

Happy Monday everyone!

Ingredients (makes 1 loaf):

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs, room temp

2 large avocados, completely mashed (you need 2 avocados to ensure the moisture in the bread)

1/2 cup Greek yogurt, plain

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

3 tsp baking soda

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup + 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray, set aside.

2. In a stand mixer, beat butter for 1-2 minutes. Add sugar, and beat until pale and creamy. Add eggs, one by one. Beat until well combined. Add avocado, mix until well combined. Add Greek yogurt and vanilla, beat until well combined. Remove bowl from stand mixer.

3. In a small bowl, combine salt, baking soda, flour, and cocoa powder. Whisk to thoroughly mix. Add mixture to butter mixture. Fold flour mixture into wet ingredients with a spatula, just until barely mixed. Do not over-mix. 

4. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes. Check bread to make sure top is not getting too brown. If top is well browned, cover with aluminum foil, and continue baking for about another 10 minutes. Bread is done when a knife inserted comes out with moist crumbs. Cool in the pan for 30 minutes, then remove bread to a cooling rack. Cool completely before storage. Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

Printable Recipe

Recipe adapted from Kirbie's Cravings.

If you liked this recipe, you may enjoy these-

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

Oatmeal Raisin Quick Bread

Simple Banana Bread

Linked to: Treasure Box Tuesday, Create It Thursday, Thank Goodness It's Thursday, Weekend Potluck, Foodie Friday, Snickerdoodle Sunday