Chocolate Swirl Bread…

I’ve been a little delinquent on the blog as of late. I’m catching up with some posts I meant to publish a while back. My goal is to be more timely in the future. In the mean time here’s a few oldies but goodies:

I like to think I make a pretty decent banana bread. (If I do say so myself…which I’m allowed to do because I’m the only one writing this blog) With a co-worker requesting something with chocolate for her birthday treat and bananas overloading my freezer door, I went in search for a recipe that could combine the two. I should have known that the folks at Our Best Bites (be sure to check out their new blog design!) would come through yet again and offer a delicious new recipe for me to experiment with combining, you guessed it, banana bread and chocolate.

Usually, I’m a traditionalist when it comes to my banana bread. I have a pretty simple recipe that works just fine for me-bananas, butter, eggs, sugar, etc.- and judging by the record time it takes to disappear from the kitchen, I think my co-workers like it too.
(an aside-I’m pretty sure I could accidentally swap the sugar for salt and said bread would still be eaten in record time, but that’s just the nature of homemade food in an office kitchen, isn’t it?)

Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve experimented a few times, adding pecans here, a bit of peanut butter there, but for the most part I enjoy the simple super-moist version. For all you chocolate lovers out there, this recipe might change your mind. And a little change never hurt anyone, so the next time you are ready to fall back into that trusted recipe, take a minute to add a twist. Your co-workers may thank you 🙂

Chocolate Swirl Banana Bread

adapted from Our Best Bites recipe and Sarah’s Simple Banana Bread (See below)
2 c. flour
¾ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 c. sugar
¼ c. butter, melted
1 ½ c. mashed ripe bananas (about 3-4 medium bananas)
2 eggs
½ c. chocolate chips

Directions:

PREHEAT oven to 350 degrees

MIX flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl.

CREAM melted butter, eggs and sugar in stand mixer. Add bananas. Add flour mixture until just combined.

MELT chocolate chips in microwave on low power. Add 1 cup of batter to chocolate and mix together.

ALTERNATE layers of chocolate batter and regular batter into loaf pan coated with cooking spray.

SWIRL chocolate batter with knife.

BAKE for 1 hour. Let cool before slicing.

ENJOY!