One Tasty Chocolate-Banana Loaf Leads to Another: Marbled Banana Bread

I recently exchanged recipes with a blog reader who asked me for a copy of the Chocolate Banana Bread recipe that I blogged about back in 2010. The recipe was printed in the May 2002 issue of now-defunct Chocolatier magazine, but thankfully I have a hard copy that I saved from 17 years ago. It's beautifully preserved because I actually laminated it (yeah, I'm the kind of person who owns a laminator). After I scanned the recipe and sent it to Beth, I received a chocolate-banana recipe from her in return -- the Marbled Banana Bread from Smitten Kitchen.

Shortly after getting the recipe, I found myself with some very ripe bananas on hand and decided to give the recipe a try. It's simple and doesn't require a mixer. You make a base batter by combining melted butter, mashed bananas, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, baking soda, and salt. You divide the mixture in half. You add more flour and cinnamon to one half, and cocoa powder and chocolate chips to the other half. Then you place alternating dollops of the batters in a buttered 9-inch by 5-inch loaf pan and swirl the batters together before baking.
I used the exact loaf pan size specified, 9-inches by 5-inches. The batter level seemed a little low in the pan and the loaf was fairly short after baking. I think I would have preferred a taller loaf, so if I make this bread again, I'll bake it in a 8.5-inch by 4.5-inch pan. But this loaf was very moist and flavorful and I enjoyed it immensely. It was difficult to tell that it was comprised of two different batters swirled together -- if you ate a piece blindfolded you would just think you were eating chocolate-banana bread. Honestly, this loaf reminded me a lot of the one from Chocolatier, and I would gladly make either. I love banana bread in basically any form, but chocolate-banana bread is one of my favorite variations.

Recipe: "Marbled Banana Bread" from Smitten Kitchen.

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