Banana Chocolate Marble Bread

The first thing I am doing today is wishing my daughter Tricia a very happy birthday! She was born 31 years ago, three weeks late, and entered the world by cesarean section at 9 lbs., 3 oz., with a head of very blonde hair and the rosiest cheeks. It seems like yesterday, in some ways, and it's very hard to believe that my youngest child is in her 30s! As in 1982, spring was late to arrive that year and just after she was born, this area was hit with an early spring snowstorm that dumped a huge amount of snow, keeping visitors home. Tricia and I had a lot of time to get to know each other during those quiet days in the hospital! With a house-full of little ones at home, I was grateful for the "vacation!"

Tricia's birthday cake was baked last night and will be frosted when I get home from work today. It's a deep, dark chocolate cake and will be frosted with chocolate as well. There seems to be a genetic predisposition toward chocolate that Tricia carries in her DNA - from both sides! I am  happy to indulge this deep-seeded craving for Tricia and the rest of the family who will celebrate her day,  though nothing has been scheduled yet. We're all too busy with work schedules and hopefully, we'll find a time to come together to wish her a wonderful year ahead!

While Tricia's cake was baking, I had another project in the works. I'd been thinking all day of ways to use the abundance of bananas that Katie had left over from the weekend She had bunches and bunches of the fruit, beginning to become perfectly ripe for baking. With chocolate on my mind, I decided to bake up a loaf of banana chocolate marble bread, inspired by a recipe from Cooking Light. I took it up a healthier notch by adding fiber and protein with flax meal. The original recipe called for yogurt, but I didn't have plain yogurt in my fridge so substituted low fat sour cream and it worked beautifully.  Here's the recipe and a photo, where you can see that my changes were very successful!

Soooo good!

BANANA CHOCOLATE MARBLE BREAD
oven - 350 degrees Farenheit.  
One standard or approximate loaf pan, sprayed or greased

3 very ripe bananas
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup butter, margarine (I used Smart Balance) or canola oil
1/3 cup plain yogurt or sour cream (I used light sour cream)
1 large egg
2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour (or 1 3/4 cups whole white or whole wheat)
1/4 cups flax meal (if you have it, I added this to the original recipe)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted in microwave (about 1 minute, stirred)

In large mixer bowl, beat ripe bananas until completely mashed. Add sugar, butter, yogurt, and beat well. Add egg and vanilla.  Beat again.

To this mixture, add mixture of flour, flax meal, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Mix fairly well until all dry particles are incorporated.

To one cup of batter, stir in melted chocolate. Spoon banana and chocolate batters alternately into prepared pan. Swirl with knife. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour, fifteen minutes or until loaf tests done (bounces back when pressed in the middle or toothpick inserted in center comes out clean). Mine was done in an hour and five minutes.

Cool in pan for 1/2 hour  Remove from pan and cool on wire rack. While still a little warm, wrap in foil or plastic wrap.  This is a tip my sister-in-law Lynn shared years ago - it keeps the loaf very moist!

Enjoy sliced right from the loaf, or enjoy a toasted slice with peanut butter!

AND, here's a photo of Tricia's birthday cake - which ended up with mocha frosting.  Dark chocolate cake with mocha frosting - yum!

Happy Birthday, Tricia!!!

Thanks for visiting, and have a great day!