Chocolate-Swirl Banana Bread

Just like my pie crust recipe and my pancake recipe, I have tried so many banana bread recipes, too many to count.  But now I've finally found one that I'm keeping.  It's a combination of a couple different recipes I've tried over the years, the main part being from The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook which I base a lot of my recipes on.  If they are testing all their recipes to perfection, which they do in that cookbook, then why am I still changing the recipes?  I don't know, but I do.  It's in my genes, I think…

You can make this recipe without the chocolate swirl, just omit that part of the recipe.  But I love it, as does every single female I've shared this banana bread with.  I took a loaf to work this week for our monthly staff meeting and the whole loaf was gone by the end of the day…Dietitian's know good food when they taste it.  Sorry, Nick.  I would have sent you a loaf but both loaves ended up disappearing before I could begin to think about wrapping one up and sending it off.  (Nick, loves anything with the banana and chocolate combination and I had just sent him a loaf last month, so you don't have to be female to love this recipe)  I barely got the picture of it taken before it was gone…if you notice the photo-it's far from being a whole loaf.  Bruce, however, prefers it without the chocolate swirl.  Sorry, Bruce.  You're out-numbered!  I know there's only two of us in this household but my opinion rules when it comes to food.

The key to great banana bread is ripe bananas.  I usually use frozen bananas. For whatever reason, we rarely eat all the bananas I buy before they start turning brown and too ripe to eat so I just pop them in the freezer and vow to not buy a whole bunch of bananas at the grocery store next time.  You know, you can break off bananas from a bunch at the store.  But for whatever reason, I still always buy too many…Then Bruce complains because our freezer is overflowing with brown, frozen bananas.  And they do look sort of ugly in the freezer.

I just put the over ripe bananas in the freezer.  Before I make the banana bread, I take out 3 frozen bananas and put them on plate and let them thaw out, which they do pretty fast.  Then you peel them and the inside of the banana is already mashed from thawing out and you add them to the batter, per the recipe instructions.

If you want to use bananas that aren't ripe enough, here's a trick to ripen bananas fast.  Before peeling and mashing, pop them on a baking sheet and into the pre-heated oven for 15 minutes while you gather and measure the rest of the ingredients.  The skins will turn black but the flesh will be brown, soft, and sweet.  This quick roast acts like an accelerated sunbath, coaxing out the prized natural sugars.  However, the trick will not work with green bananas, which are far too starchy and bitter for baking.

Makes one loaf 

2 cups of flour

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 tsp.  baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3 very ripe bananas, mashed well

6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1/4 cup plain yogurt

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1-1/4 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. Adjust oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees.  Generously coat a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan with vegetable oil spray.

2.  Whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl.  

3.  Whisk the mashed bananas, melted butter, eggs, yogurt, and vanilla together in a separate bowl. 

4.  Gently fold the banana mixture into the flour mixture with a rubber spatula until just combined.  

5.  Fold in the nuts (if using).  Do not overmix; the batter will look thick and chunky.

6.  Place chocolate chips in a medium microwave-safe bowl, and microwave on HIGH 1 minute or until almost melted, stirring until smooth.  Cool slightly.  Add 1 cup of batter to chocolate, stirring until well combined.  

7.  Spoon half of the plain batter into the prepared loaf pan, then add the chocolate batter spreading evening, then add the rest of the plain batter.  Swirl batters together using a knife.  Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a just a few crumbs attached, about 55 minutes.

8.  Let the loaf cool in the pan for 10 minutes before unmolding onto a wire rack to cool for 1 hour.