Marble Chocolate Banana Bread
This Marble Chocolate Banana Bread is both beautiful to look at and mouth-wateringly delicious! This Marble Chocolate Banana Bread is created by swirling together traditional banana bread batter with a chocolate infused banana bread to create a loaf that has a beautiful marbling effect! The banana bread is rich, insanely tender, and full of delicious banana and chocolate flavor!
How to achieve the Marble Effect
This marbling effect in this Marble Chocolate Banana Bread is both gorgeous and easy to achieve! As you’ll see below, this effect is created by making one base banana bread batter, dividing it, then adding cocoa to one and extra flour to the other. You then add the batters to the prepared loaf pan by alternating them – meaning you take a scoop of one, then a scoop of the other, until all the batter has been added! Lastly, just grab a long bamboo skewer and lightly swirl the batter all around, creating that swirly marble look to the Marble Chocolate Banana Bread!
HOW TO MAKE THE MARBLE CHOCOLATE BANANA BREAD
1.Mix together ‘wet’ ingredients: Add oil, melted butter, brown sugar, eggs, mashed bananas, sour cream and vanilla to a mixing bowl, and beat together until very smooth.
2. Whisk together ‘dry’ ingredients: In a large mixing bowl, add 1 cup flour, baking soda, and salt. Whisk until well combined.
3. Add ‘wet’ and ‘dry’ together: Add the dry ingredients to the bowl the wet ingredients, and beat until just combined.
4. Divide the batter: Pour half of the batter into a separate bowl, while keeping the other half of the batter in the original bowl.
5. Add cocoa and flour: Add the cocoa powder to one of the bowls, then mix until just combined. Add the remaining flour to the other bowl, then mix that until just combined.
6. Alternate batter: Add a scoop of the chocolate batter to the prepared loaf pan, then a scoop of the regular batter. Alternate adding the batter until all of both batters has been added. Take a bamboo skewers and swirl the batter.
7. Bake: Bake the Marble Chocolate Banana Bread until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before cutting into.
HOW RIPE SHOULD THE BANANAS BE?
It is crucial in this marble chocolate banana bread recipe, along with all other banana breads or banana-based baked goods, that you use overripe bananas – they should actually be verging on black! Why you ask? Well because the texture is better and they are sweeter! The ripening process for bananas turns the starch molecules into sugar molecules, and the results of this are twofold. Most apparent, is that the bananas become significantly sweeter, but the breaking down of the starch structures also cause the banana to become softer and mushier, which is needed to achieve the right texture for your Banana Bread.
Don’t have overripe bananas? Well, really, the only way to ripen them quickly is to put them in a brown bag and let them sit. The brown bag allows moisture to escape, while still trapping the ethylene gas in the bag, leading to faster ripening. This should quicken the ripening process by a day or two. Some people suggest that you can put the bananas in the freezer to ripen quickly, but sadly, this doesn’t work. Freezing the bananas will actually completely stop the ripening process in its tracks! Definitely not what you want. As well, some suggest that baking the banana in the oven until the peel turns black will also result in properly ripe bananas, but this doesn’t work either. Baking the bananas will get you the proper texture (mushy), but the process of baking does not turn the starch molecules into sugar, and as such you will not have the proper sweetness or flavor. So, sadly, there is no quick fix for unripe bananas, you must just sit and wait.
SMOOTH BANANAS FOR A SMOOTH TEXTURE
As a little aside, I thought I should mention that I personally mash my bananas into a smooth paste. By mashing to a very smooth texture, the marble chocolate banana bread will also be smooth and uniform in texture – meaning no chunks of bananas in the cooked Banana Bread.
Get the Recipe: Marble Chocolate Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup Unsalted Butter,, melted
- 1/4 cup Vegetable Oil,, such as walnut oil or canola
- 1 cup Light Brown Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 3 Overripe Bananas,, mashed smooth
- 1/2 cup Full-Fat Sour Cream
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 1 ¼ cups (150g) All Purpose Flour,, divided, measured correctly †
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1/4 cup Dutch Processed Cocoa Powder,, sifted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F and prepare a 9×5” loaf pan with oil and parchment. Meanwhile, add the melted butter, oil, brown sugar, eggs, mashed bananas, sour cream, and vanilla to a large mixing bowl, and beat with a handmixer until it has formed a smooth consistency.
- In a separate bowl, add 1 cup flour (120g), baking soda, and salt. Whisk until well combined, then add this dry mixture to the wet mixture. beat until just combined, ensuring not to overmix.
- Divide the batter into two bowls. Add the cocoa powder to one bowl and mix until just combined and smooth. Add the remaining 1/4 flour to the other bowl, and mix until just combined and smooth.
- Alternate adding each batter into the prepared loaf pan by scooping the chocolate batter and then the regular batter, until all of both batters has been added. Take a bamboo skewer and lightly swirl the batter around in the pan.
- Place into the oven and bake in the oven for about 55 to 60 minutes.
Hi, the recipe looks amazing and I can’t wait to try! Would you have the ingredients in metric units instead? Am I able to use cake flour for this?
I haven’t tested it with cake flour so I can’t be sure. I don’t think the structure would be quite right though, so I do recommend using all purpose!
– 56g Unsalted Butter, melted
– 54g Vegetable Oil, such as walnut oil or canola
– 200g Light Brown Sugar
– 2 large Eggs
– 3 Overripe Bananas, mashed smooth
– 120g Full-Fat Sour Cream
– 1 tsp Vanilla
– 150g All Purpose Flour, divided
– 1 tsp Baking Soda
– 1/2 tsp Salt
– 25g Dutch Processed Cocoa Powder, sifted