Chocolate Applesauce Bread

Last Friday night was a Pinewood Derby and there was a cook-off using food storage. I had no idea what to make. It was sort of early enough it could have been dinner items and yet 7 p.m. is late enough that you most likely had dinner so I opted for a bread. If I went the dinner route, I was going to cook rice and have a tuna/pea sauce to put on it. It is a recipe that my grandmother made, my mother and now I do.

It was sort of a backwards compliment but I won "The Golden Can Award for Best Dessert". I was the only dessert. It makes my think of when my father-in-law tells me I'm his favorite daughter-in-law - I'm his only daughter-in-law.

Here is the recipe:

Chocolate Applesauce Bread

2C sugar
3/4C butter
3 eggs
1 (25 oz.) jar apple sauce
4C flour
2-1/2t baking soda
3/4t salt
3/4t cinnamon
4T unsweetened cocoa
1/2C chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350^o. In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, then the applesauce. In another large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and cocoa. Stir the dry ingredients into the applesauce mixture; blend. Pour the batter into 3 buttered 5x9 loaf pans, filling each pan about 3/4 full. Sprinkle the loaves evenly with chocolate chips and bake for 1 hour, or until a knife inserted in the middle of each loaf comes out clean. Let cool on wire racks. Remove the loaves from the pans when cool.