Monday, March 4, 2013

black and white, chocolate chip banana bread

I had to put the comma in between "white" and "chocolate", as not to mislead you to believe this includes white chocolate. White chocolate and banana? I'm sorry, but ew.

Instead, slices of this banana bread resemble those adorable black and white cookies. Well, I suppose this is more like black and yellow. Whatever. 1/2 chocolate banana (the black) and 1/2 banana chocolate chip (the chocolate studded white)-- make this only if you want trick people into thinking you are a super awesome baker without having to do much.

Black and White, Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Yields 1 loaf

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white, granulated sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup canola oil
1 cup mashed ripened banana
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder, sifted

DIRECTIONS 
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, stir together dry ingredients-- flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, combine eggs, oil, and mashed banana. Add wet mixture to dry mixture. Use a wooden spoon or spatula to gently stir everything together until just incorporated. There should not be any visible "dry".
4. Reserve about 1/3 of the mixture by pouring back into the "wet" bowl. 
5. To the other 2/3 of the mixture, fold in chocolate chips. Then, pour this chocolate chip mixture into the greased loaf pan. Use the spatula to spread out this layer as evenly as possible.
6. To the reserved 1/3 banana mixture, stir in the unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder. It will look like a thick, gooey chocolate batter.
7. Add the chocolate banana batter to the loaf pan, on top of the chocolate chip banana layer. You can use a spatula again to spread the chocolate layer. Or, with a knife, I use the sharp point to "cut" into the top layer and swirl around until it looks about even. This will give a pretty marbled look on top.
8. Bake in the preheated oven for about 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean.
9. Then remove loaf pan from the oven and allow to cool for about 10-15 minutes. the loaf should start pulling away from the pan as it cools. Flip the banana bread loaf out of the pan and then sit it right-side up again to finish cooling. If it is too warm, it might crumble as you do this. The longer you allow the banana bread to cool in the pan, the easier it will be to flip out.
10. When mostly cooled, slice with a sharp knife/ bread knife and serve.
11. Wrap whatever you do not eat with plastic wrap. This can also be frozen for up to 3 months.

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