Earlier in the week I wanted to do some baking to use up some ingredients I had on hand, and I remembered the perfect two-fer to use up both some overripe bananas and sour cream -- Chocolate Banana Bread. This recipe comes from the May 2002 issue of the now-defunct Chocolatier Magazine and it has always been one of my favorites. It's a really unique take on banana bread, and with both cocoa and chopped chocolate in the batter, the resulting loaf is definitely more decadent and dessert-like than traditional banana breads.
As I had my bread in the oven on Monday, Tom asked me where the recipe was from. I told him, and asked him why he wanted to know. As it turns out, Ruth Reichl -- the former Editor in Chief of the late and great Gourmet Magazine -- was also facing an oversupply of overripe bananas and had just tweeted a request for banana bread recipes. Tom replied to her tweet with a link to this recipe. Later on in the day, Reichl posted an entry on her online journal discussing the banana bread recipes she had received and posting quite a few of them. I was hoping that this recipe would have made her selected list, but it didn't. In fact, I was quite dismayed when I read one of the criteria Reichl used for sorting through the recipes she received: "Half of the recipes included chocolate of some sort; not my idea of a good time, so I ruled them out."
Not her idea of a good time?! I have tremendous respect for Ruth Reichl, but I'm sorry, that's just nuts. Chocolate and bananas are made for each other! Surely anyone who has ever tasted a frozen chocolate-covered banana can attest to this. And let me tell you, Ruth Reichl is really missing out. This bread is luxuriously dense and moist, and the chocolate truly elevates the banana flavor to make it something special. Perhaps one day I will try the banana bread recipe Reichl finally settled on and see how it compares!
Recipe: "Chocolate Banana Bread" from Chocolatier Magazine, May 2002.
As I had my bread in the oven on Monday, Tom asked me where the recipe was from. I told him, and asked him why he wanted to know. As it turns out, Ruth Reichl -- the former Editor in Chief of the late and great Gourmet Magazine -- was also facing an oversupply of overripe bananas and had just tweeted a request for banana bread recipes. Tom replied to her tweet with a link to this recipe. Later on in the day, Reichl posted an entry on her online journal discussing the banana bread recipes she had received and posting quite a few of them. I was hoping that this recipe would have made her selected list, but it didn't. In fact, I was quite dismayed when I read one of the criteria Reichl used for sorting through the recipes she received: "Half of the recipes included chocolate of some sort; not my idea of a good time, so I ruled them out."
Not her idea of a good time?! I have tremendous respect for Ruth Reichl, but I'm sorry, that's just nuts. Chocolate and bananas are made for each other! Surely anyone who has ever tasted a frozen chocolate-covered banana can attest to this. And let me tell you, Ruth Reichl is really missing out. This bread is luxuriously dense and moist, and the chocolate truly elevates the banana flavor to make it something special. Perhaps one day I will try the banana bread recipe Reichl finally settled on and see how it compares!Recipe: "Chocolate Banana Bread" from Chocolatier Magazine, May 2002.
Comments
I will say, though, that in thinking about banana bread, the idea of chocolate bb doesn't have much appeal to me, right off the bat. Then I think about "Chunky Monkey" Banana Bread. (BB with choc. chips & maybe walnuts.) An invention I am curious to try!