Better in what way? Have you tried either recipe yet? I would try the second recipe first... it'll be less sweet (my preference) and it sounds interesting!

The second one sounds more like cake than bread. Why not make them both and decide? I don't have any buttermilk in the house, but I have everything for the first recipe. Since I'm home, stirring a pot of meat sauce for lasagna for the balance of the afternoon, I'll give the first one a shot and post it here.

Wow, thank you, Ricky! I'm thinking of glazing it with a chocolate ganache too. ;)

Party_music, better in texture and flavor and fool-proof. I don't bake often so I want the effort to be worth it. The recipes come from blogs and I don't always trust them.

I think it should be a little less sweet because of the chocolate. I chopped the chocolate a little too fine for my banana bread, trying to recreate one I had once, but I really liked the larger pieces that remained. They were about the size of a large chocolate chip. I'm going to use chopped chocolate from now on, even in cookies, as it's so melt-in-your-mouth good compared to chocolate chips.

Here's your first recipe, with a few minor changes:

2 c. flour - I used Bread flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt - I don't use salt in anything

8 tbsp. butter

1 c. sugar

1 c. milk - I had one 5oz can of evaporated milk left; I used it instead of milk

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

1 c. chopped chocolate - Nestle's Tollhouse Morsels

Creamed the butter and sugar, added the egg, milk, and vanilla. Mixed in the flour and baking powder. Last, added the chocolate morsels.

Baked at 350 degrees in a greased 9x5 meatloaf pan for 50 minutes.

Tastes more like a cake than a bread. I would probably use the mini morsels the next time.

You could substitute blueberries, raisins, or any number of other small goodies in this recipe. If I had a glass of milk, I'd be dunkin' chunks of this bread all day.

It looks good. Nice rise, which I like.

Yes, this is a tea loaf or loaf cake. Did it seem sweet using the condensed milk along with the sugar? I do put salt in my baked goods and sometimes even use as much as 1 tsp. when it calls for 1/2 tsp. I made cookies once without salt and it tasted off to me.

Try chopping chocolate instead of chips. I read that chips have a waxy stabilizer in them that helps them hold their shape. With chopped chocolate you get a more even distribution and more of a chocolate taste.

I make banana chocolate chip cake, it is delish. it that's my fave kind. I have a ton of quick bead recipes but I'm trying to cut down on sweets, darn it! I used to make quick bread a lot but I started making muffins instead since I can freeze them and just take one out at a time for breakfast or tea. You can turn a muffin recipe into quick breads or vice versa. I also have a banana oat bran choc. chip muffin recipe, that's good too. I don't know if I would go for just plain bread with choc. chips. If I was going that route I might as well have a cookie or a chocolate croissant.

Yes, banana chocolate chip cake is great. I made one just last week. It's a favorite here. Always better the second day...more moist after the banana bits give up moisture to the cake.

What about a date nut bread? I've never tasted it but am having a hankering for dates lately so it sounds esp. good.

Date and Nut Bread

As my memory has it, both my grandmothers and an aunt made Date &
Nut Bread whenever I visited. It was as much a staple as the jar of
schmaltz in the refrigerator. I hadn't eaten it in probably 30 years
until I got a urge to visit my past one rainy afternoon.
The recipe below is from "The New McCall's Cook Book" 1973 edition. One
of my three cookbooks. It makes a wonderful Date & Nut Bread, very
close to my grandmother's, but not exact.

• 4 cups of pitted dates - I use 1"-2" long Majools. 2 12-oz
  containers were more than I needed. Cut the dates into chunks about the
  size of a dime. I quarter them.
• 2 cups of chopped walnuts - don't powder them, but get them chopped up good.
• Dump them both in a big mixing bowl and pour 2 cups of boiling
  water over them. Stir and then let sit until cool - at least 30 minutes.
• 2-3/4 cups of All Purpose flour sifted together with 1-1/2 teaspoons of baking soda and 1 teaspoon of salt. Set this aside.
• Cream 1/2 cup of unsalted butter (1 stick and get it nice and
  soft first) with 1-1/4 cups of dark brown sugar firmly packed. Then mix
  in 2 eggs and 1 teaspoon of vanilla (use the good stuff!) When the
  butter is completely mixed add this to the date and nut mixture and mix
  it well with a wood spoon.
• Add in the flour mixture and beat with the wood spoon until well combined.
• Split the batter between 2 greased 9x5 meatloaf pans and bake
  at 350 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out
  clean. The original recipe said and hour and ten minutes; mine were done
  in 50 minutes.

SO likes date nut bread and got me some dates, but they were lousy, the pre-chopped ones. Made some banana date muffins with them and they were not good. I think I need to bite the bullet and get some dates and actually chop them up. I don't like dates (mostly a texture issue) but can handle them in small bits. I hope to make some date cake or date bread over the holidays. But first I gotta work on the candied peel I have left from last year!

lpink, were the lousy dates "flavored"?! I love dried apricots so my sister bought some for me -- I thought they were lousy and I recall reading on the pkg that they were flavored with apple juice or something. :p

I used to make quick breads all the time! cranberry, pumpkin, and poppyseed-lemon were probably my favorites. A friend of a friend once made a lemon bread that had a lemon frosting and chunks of cream cheese in it. I loved it, but wasn't able to find that recipe. Now it's gluten-free baking and I haven't made a quick bread in years. :(

I have a Bundt cake recipe with chopped apricots and it's one of my favorites. It's called orange apricot yogurt bread. Nice for summer.

I've found another recipe from the Boston Globe. The ratios look better than the other ones and I'm gong to substitute chopped chocolate for the blueberries and use a ganache glaze.

Blueberry Buttermilk Tea Cake

2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup fresh blueberries, picked over

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3/4 cup buttermilk

Confectioners’ sugar (for sprinkling)

1. Set the oven at 350 degrees. Butter a 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan. Dust the pan with flour, tapping out the excess.

2. In a bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to blend them.

3. In another bowl, toss the blueberries with 1 teaspoon of the flour mixture.

4.
In an electric mixer at medium speed, beat the butter for 2 minutes.
Add the sugar in two additions, beating for 1 minute after each. Blend
in the eggs, one at a time, followed by the vanilla.

5.
With the mixer set on low speed, beat in half of the flour mixture,
then the buttermilk, then the remaining flour mixture. Scrape down the
sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula once or twice.

6. Remove the bowl from the mixer stand. With a large rubber spatula fold in the blueberries and any excess flour in the bowl.

7.
Spoon the batter into the loaf pan, mounding it slightly in the center.
Bake the cake for 55 to 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the
middle of the cake is clean when withdrawn.

8. Set
the cake on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Turn the cake out of
the pan and return the cake to the rack to cool. Dust the top with
confectioners’ sugar. Cut into slices with a serrated knife.

Lisa Yockelson