the friday feed: marbled banana bread

You can only choose one of these to eat. Which one are you going with?

The other day my son brought three #14 bananas to the house. "Wanna make some banana bread?"

Plain old banana bread just wasn't doing it for me. I wanted banana bread with a twist, a chocolate twist, and Google took me to marbled banana bread.

Chocolate and banana are a delicious combination and this recipe is no exception. It’s fun to make: you spoon the banana and chocolate batters into a loaf pan alternately, then artistically swirl the two together with a knife. My swirling isn't too artistic but the bread was really good.

Oh, and to answer the "which banana would you choose?" question, I'll go with a #7, please.

Marbled Banana Bread (by Jenn Segal, Once Upon a Chef)

1¾ cups all purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled-off

¾ teaspoon baking soda

¾ teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter, softened

2 large eggs

1 cup mashed very ripe bananas, from 2-3 bananas

½ cup sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped (a heaping ½ cup)

2 teaspoons natural unsweetened cocoa powder, such as Hershey's

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed until just combined. Add the mashed bananas, sour cream and vanilla extract and beat until just combined. Do not overmix.

Place the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl. Cook on high power in 20 second intervals, stopping to stir in between, until about 80% melted. Stir until smooth, letting the residual heat in the bowl melt the remaining bits of unmelted chocolate. Add the cocoa powder and stir until dissolved. Add one cup of the banana bread batter to the melted chocolate and stir until well combined.

Spoon the plain batter and chocolate batter alternately into the prepared loaf pan. Swirl the batters together with a knife (don't overdo it or the colors will get muddled -- up and back 4 to 5 times should suffice). Bake for about 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for about 10 minutes, then remove the loaf from the pan and set on the wire rack to cool completely.

****Today is Groundhog Day! According to the calendar, there are six more weeks of winter but the little fuzzy guy is predicting an early spring.