I really like the combination of bananas and chocolate. And I'm a huge fan of Dorie Greenspan, so I looking forward to trying her "Black-and-White Banana Loaf" recipe from Baking: From My Home to Yours. The headnote describes the bread as "One part chocolate, one part rummy banana, and all parts delicious."
To make the batter, you beat softened butter with sugar and light brown sugar; add eggs and vanilla; alternately add in the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg) and milk; and mix in bananas that have been mashed with lemon juice and zest. You're also supposed to add a tablespoon of dark rum to the bananas, but I realized that I had forgotten it only after the bread was already in the oven and I noticed the rum bottle I had left out on the counter.
You take a little less than half of the batter out of the bowl and add it to a mixture of melted butter and bittersweet chocolate. Then you drop alternately spoonfuls of the banana batter and chocolate-banana batter into a loaf pan (I lined mine with parchment), marble the batters together, and bake. The banana batter was very runny and flowed freely in the pan, but the chocolate-banana batter was stiffer and stayed put where I dropped it.
I thought this was a beautiful loaf. I had used a light hand with my marbling technique and there were pretty contrasting swirls of batter in each slice. And while the bread had a very good texture, I thought the flavor was just okay. First, the loaf includes a quarter teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg, and for me, the nutmeg was a little overpowering. The headnote says that the nutmeg "flavor isn't obvious with the first bite -- it takes a few seconds to emerge." But I found the nutmeg inescapable, and in fact, the nutmeg was clearly discernible even in the bread's aroma. Adding to the problem, I thought the bread was not banana-y enough. The recipe calls for 1.5 bananas, which I weighed out to be 210 grams. It's quite possible that the rum that I forgot to add might have enhanced the banana flavor a bit. But I'm not planning to try the recipe again. I have lots of other great chocolate-banana recipes I'd rather return to.
Recipe: "Black-and-White Banana Loaf" from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.
Previous Posts:
To make the batter, you beat softened butter with sugar and light brown sugar; add eggs and vanilla; alternately add in the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg) and milk; and mix in bananas that have been mashed with lemon juice and zest. You're also supposed to add a tablespoon of dark rum to the bananas, but I realized that I had forgotten it only after the bread was already in the oven and I noticed the rum bottle I had left out on the counter.
You take a little less than half of the batter out of the bowl and add it to a mixture of melted butter and bittersweet chocolate. Then you drop alternately spoonfuls of the banana batter and chocolate-banana batter into a loaf pan (I lined mine with parchment), marble the batters together, and bake. The banana batter was very runny and flowed freely in the pan, but the chocolate-banana batter was stiffer and stayed put where I dropped it.
Recipe: "Black-and-White Banana Loaf" from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.
Previous Posts:
- "Like a Brownie in Cookie Form, but Better: Double Chocolate Banana Cookies," August 7, 2019.
- "Sweet, Sticky Banana Heaven: Chocolate-Crusted Banana Blondies," July 5, 2019.
- "One Tasty Chocolate-Banana Loaf Leads to Another: Marbled Banana Bread," June 7, 2019.
- "Foiled By Foil?: Banana Crunch Beer Brownies," May 25, 2018.
- "Hats Off to Fudge Caps: Banana Fudge Cookies," May 14, 2018.
- "Bananas and Chocolate? Sweet!: Chocolate Banana Swirl Cake," May 13, 2018.
- "Going Bananas for Nutella: Chocolate-Hazelnut Banana Bread," February 21, 2018.
- "I'm Going to Have to Disagree with Ruth Reichl on This One: Chocolate Banana Bread," February 17, 2010.
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