Baking for Nightshift- Chocolate and Banana Brownies

I haven't been baking much for night shift as I have been so busy with just living life and being a working mum. When I have baked it has been something I have made before so I haven't blogged about it or else I have taken photos and then waited so long I have forgotten where the recipe was from. I saw these on a blog I follow called Baking Makes Things Better which is  NZ run blog now attached to Food TV. The site is not too bad....mostly I find it's a bit basic, but I sometimes find a recipe I want to give a go and this one I saved a while ago for when I had motivation and some over ripe bananas. I'm not a huge fan of banana cake and I often have lots of ripe bananas due to the fact that in our household three out of the four of us will only eat a banana when it's almost green. As soon as it goes yellow we aren't interested. Thank goodness for the Yonanas!

Anyway this is yummy. It has a rich chocolate taste and a slight banana flavour. Delicious and easy to make and well worth making again. 

Chocolate and Banana Brownies

175g dark chocolate
175g butter
150g brown sugar
2 medium sized bananas
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
100g self raising flour
2 teaspoons cocoa
¼ cup chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate)

Preheat your oven to 180°C.  Grease and line a 20cm square tin with baking paper.

In a large saucepan over a medium heat, melt the chocolate, butter and sugar together, stirring until smooth.  Once melted and mixed together, remove from the heat.
In a bowl, mash up the bananas roughly with a fork (I like to have chunks of banana in the brownie).  Add the eggs, bananas and vanilla into the chocolate mixture and stir until well mixed.

Sift in the flour, cocoa and chocolate chips (if using) and mix well.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 30 – 35 minutes.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely in the tin before cutting into squares and serving.