Marvel at the Marble

For some reason most Americans missed the memo that sometimes foods are best when they are slightly, well, off.

I’m not talking spoiled, but I’m talking over-ripe. Some things are actually at their prime for some uses when most people toss them!

Exhibit numero uno: Bananas.

When they are black and almost melt into a puddle of banana goop, most people ditch them. But what a mistake that is!

The bananas might not be good for banana splits at that point but they are most certainly the best for this Marbled Banana Bread (or banana pudding).

Marbled Banana Bread

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5 from 1 vote

Author: Nick Evans

Servings: 12 Servings

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 50 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour

This quick bread recipe bakes up into a rich and dense banana bread loaf swirled with chocolate batter and packed with banana flavor!

Equipment

• Loaf Pan

Ingredients 

• 3 very ripe bananas
• ½ cup sugar
• ¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
• 2 large eggs
• ½ cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2-3 ounces bittersweet chocolate

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Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter and dust with flour a 9×5 loaf pan.
• In a large bowl, mash very ripe bananas with sugar. Then whisk in melted butter, eggs, vanilla, and buttermilk.
• In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients.
• In a microwave-safe bowl, heat chocolate in 20 second bursts until it’s just melted. Stir 1 cup of bread batter into the chocolate.
• Pour half of the plain batter into your prepared loaf pan. Top with 1/2 the chocolate batter. Cover with plain batter and top with the last 1/2 of the chocolate batter. Use a chopstick to swirl the batters together.
• Bake loaf at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes until a tester comes out clean from the center.
• Let loaf cool for a few minutes, then remove from pan. Serve warm or let cool completely and wrap tightly to keep fresh.

Nutrition

Serving: 1Slice | Calories: 200kcal | Carbohydrates: 32g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 39mg | Sodium: 218mg | Potassium: 175mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 16g | Vitamin A: 196IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 53mg | Iron: 1mg

Course: Breads, Breakfast & Brunch

Marbled Banana Bread

Bad Bananas

The hardest part about this recipe in our house is actually letting three bananas get to this point. (We eat a lot of bananas.)

One trick that definitely worked for me was to stash them in the freezer for a few days and then thaw them in the fridge. That breaks them down quickly.

These bananas were actually so ripe that they were impossible to even peel.

To get them peeled, it was more like squirting them out… kind of gross, but there you have it.

Mash these guys with some sugar, eggs, vanilla, melted butter, and buttermilk and they will all the sudden smell intensely like bananas.

It will almost smell as if you added artificial banana flavoring.

Then just mix your dry ingredients separately and stir them into the batter.

It should be a pretty thick batter close to pancake batter and have nice speckles of banana.

The Marbling

You could absolutely just bake the batter like this and be all set.

If you have the time though, melt a few ounces of chocolate in the microwave in 20 second bursts. Then stir the melted chocolate into one cup of the batter.

Making and Baking

For your loaf pan, be sure to butter it and lightly flour it so the loaf comes out later.

Then add half of the plain batter and half of the chocolate down the center.

Repeat (plain and chocolate) and then use a chopstick to swirl everything together. You don’t want to over-mix it or you’ll just end up with a brown banana loaf (also good).

Bake it at 350 degrees F. for 45-50 minutes until a tester comes out clean from the center.

The Marbled Banana Bread should be puffed a bit and slightly cracked on top.

Let the Marbled Banana Bread loaf cool for a few minutes in the pan and then you should be able to easily take it out of the pan and let it cool for another few minutes.

Slicing into it is a fun and delicious experience.

This Marbled Banana Bread is dense loaf and really packed with banana flavors.

And anybody who knows anything will tell you that banana and chocolate are flavors that love each other.

If you can, let some nanners damn near spoil and give this loaf a shot.