Double chocolate banana bread

I'll try to keep this one short and sweet because it's a no-brainer.  When I saw double chocolate banana bread pop up on Smitten Kitchen recently, I knew I had to make it asap.  I'm guessing there's a good chance you might also be a fan of the site and felt a similar urge if you saw it too.  

My husband and I already have a favorite banana bread recipe, one I slightly adapted from Molly Wizenberg's book.  As nearly perfect as that banana bread with chocolate is, I've wanted to make a double-chocolate version because I naturally feel the urge to add more chocolate to things!  I thought about taking that recipe and tinkering with it to incorporate cocoa but my ideas were vague ones that floated around in my head without a clear direction.  Well, the answer came with this concrete recipe from Smitten Kitchen; not only did it look scrumptious but you just know you can trust Deb.  

She didn't let me down.  This double-chocolate banana bread was as good as I expected and I had high expectations.  It's chocolate cake, it's banana bread, it's both melded together but still standing individually on its own.  This is moist, dark, rich, delicious chocolate-banana cake.  Make it, enjoy it, and let's thank Deb together.

The hardest part about this recipe was waiting for the bananas to ripen!

I have to admit that instead of following the recipe by mixing everything essentially in one bowl (i.e., sifting the dry ingredient right into the wet), I took the traditional route of mixing my dry ingredients separately first.  I couldn't quite trust myself not to over-mix the batter otherwise.

This chocolate banana bread has ripe bananas, melted butter, dark brown sugar, deep Dutch-process cocoa, and studs of chocolate chips in it - all the good stuff that makes it so tasty.  There are no hidden secrets.  

Although...I did sneak a little whole wheat flour in here by substituting 1/3 of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat pastry flour.  I do a similar substitution with my favorite chocolate muffins with great results.

When I first looked at the recipe, I was surprised that Deb uses Dutch-process cocoa because there's only baking soda acting as leavening since the general rule is natural cocoa goes with baking soda.  I wasn't the only person curious about this and I noticed she answered the question by saying she preferred the flavor of Dutch-process cocoa and while it doesn't react quite as well with baking soda, the acidity in the bananas together with it provides enough of a lift.  It's true as you can see from the pictures below.  

Batter in the pan before baking...

As you can see, there was definite lift even using baking soda with Dutch-process cocoa

It's funny because until fairly recently, I always used Dutch-process cocoa, assuming (not altogether accurately) that it was "better" than natural and would work.  I assume now that I never had a major fail from a recipe doing that because there is some lifting power (and likely other acidic ingredients helping out) even if there was only baking soda as the leavening agent.

The banana bread definitely had a good rise in the oven - the lift may not be huge but it definitely worked.  The Dutch-process cocoa did its job by giving the cake a great depth of chocolate flavor. As for the chocolate bits in the banana bread that make it a double-chocolate delight, I used Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips.  I tend to agree that, in general, chopping up a bar of chocolate or using high-quality chocolate chunks - and a higher cacao % chocolate, at that - is the way to go but I started out using those semi-sweet chips for banana bread and the result is so good that I'm hard pressed to change!  As you can see, I like to stick with what works.  But I'm confident any chocolate you like would turn out deliciously.

An easy, delicious chocolate recipe always makes me smile and this one is such a winner.  I think, taste-wise, this double-chocolate banana bread is just about neck-in-neck with our old favorite (they do taste very much alike).  My husband and I agree that the old favorite probably hangs on to its title by virtue of being the best "banana bread" in a purer sense...but if you want as much (or more) chocolate flavor as you do banana, you will not go wrong with this one!  Now I have two amazing banana bread recipes to suit whatever mood we're in.  I need to have ripe bananas on standby!


Recipe: 

Double Chocolate Banana Bread
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

- Makes one 9 x 5 inch loaf - 

1 cup all-purpose flour (I used 2/3 cup all-purpose and 1/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour)
1/2 cup Dutch-process unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon table salt

1 cup (6 ounces or 170 grams) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chunks or chips

3 medium to large (a little over 1 cup mashed) very ripe bananas 
1 stick (115 grams) butter, melted
3/4 cup (145 grams) light or dark brown sugar (I used dark)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan with cooking spray.  

Sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt into a medium-size bowl.  Whisk in chocolate chips to combine.

In a large bowl, mash the bananas with a fork or masher.  Whisk in the melted butter, then brown sugar, egg, and vanilla.  Pour the dry ingredients into the wet, and stir together with a rubber spatula until just combined.

Scrap batter into the prepared loaf pan.  Bake for 55 to 65 minutes, until a tooth pick or cake tester inserted into the center comes out batter-free (but expect to see melted chocolate).  Place loaf pan on a cooling rack to cool for about 15 minutes before running a dull knife around the sides and removing the banana bread from the pan and onto the wire rack.  Enjoy the bread warm or at room temperature.  It keeps, wrapped at room temperature, for up to 4 days.