Marbled Chocolate Banana Bread

I want to start off by saying I found this recipe in Cooking Light. I note that point specifically because once you take a bite of this moist, chocolaty bread, you will not at all believe it is light. Everything in moderation and all that jazz, but this is an outstanding recipe and a great way to use up some over ripe bananas.

Marbled Chocolate Banana Bread

Yield: 16 slices

2 C all purpose flour
½ t salt
1 C sugar
1 ½ C mashed bananas (about 3)
½ C egg substitute (2 eggs)
1/3 C plain low-fat yogurt
½ C semi-sweet chocolate chips
¾ t baking soda
¼ C butter, softened
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350˚. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups. Combine flour, baking soda and salt. Place sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add banana, egg and yogurt; beat until blended. Add flour mixture; beat at low speed until just moist.

Place chocolate chips in a medium microwave safe bowl. Microwave at high for one minute until almost melted, stirring until smooth. Cool slightly. Add 1 cup of batter to chocolate and stir until combined. Spoon chocolate batter alternately with plain batter into an 8 ½ x 4 ½ greased loaf pan. Swirl batters together using a knife. Bake at 350˚ for one hour or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pan; cool completely on wire rack.

Calories: 183 (23% from fat)
Fat: 4.7g (sat 2.8g,mono 1.4g,poly 0.2g)
Protein: 3.1g
Carbohydrate: 33.4g
Fiber: 1.3g
Cholesterol:
8mg
Iron: 1.1mg
Sodium: 180mg
Calcium: 18mg

This is so incredibly delicious. The first time I made it, I literally wanted to eat the entire loaf hot out of the oven. The mouth watering combination of chocolate and bananas with the texture of hot, fresh bread will quite literally send your senses into gastronomic overdrive. This bread keeps pretty well for a few days, but honestly, there is no sensible reason for it to sit more than three or four days before it's gobbled right up. It also freezes well, too, if wrapped in plastic wrap and aluminum foil.




This bread is so versatile and can be eaten as a snack, a light dessert or my favorite, breakfast! Toast two pieces in the oven until slightly browned and the ends crunchy (the slices would likely fall apart in a traditional toaster oven, but be my guest), and then - wait for it! - spread a little peanut butter on each slice. Ring, ring! Hello, who is it? It's your stomach and brain calling, and they have just simultaneously passed out from the lip smacking fusion of the holy trinity of taste and deliciousness. The Cajun holy trinity has nothing on this combo.

A few notes. With the bananas, it's really important that they be very ripe simply because it makes them easier to mash, plus they are much sweeter when they're more ripe. Some good black speckling on the peel is a fine indicator. I sliced them up into chunks and use a pastry cutter to do the mashing, or you could also use a blender or a fork. But they have to be pretty well mashed for this to work. A few little solids here and there won't cause a problem. Also, instead of the plain low-fat yogurt, I use low-fat vanilla yogurt just to add that little extra pop. Plus, I use real eggs and not the egg substitute. You could also sub in some whole wheat flour, a teaspoon of cinnamon, a smidgen of vanilla extract, etc. Whatever your little heart desires.

Peanut Butter Granola

I figured this could be a mutli-purpose recipe that would serve both the dessert and breakfast tastes. I immediately found a breakfast option, and dessert can't be far behind.

Peanut Butter Granola

Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 3 minutes
Bake: 20 minutes
Cool: 20 minutes

3 C uncooked oats
½ C dry-roasted peanuts
½ C sweetened flaked coconut
3 T sesame seeds
½ C creamy peanut butter
½ C firmly packed brown sugar
¼ C butter
1 T light corn syrup
¼ t salt

Preheat oven to 350˚. Toss together oats through sesame seeds. Cook peanut butter through salt in a small saucepan over medium heat 3 minutes or until smooth. Stir peanut butter mixture into oat mixture until blended. Spread mixture in a single layer on a lightly greased, aluminum foil lined 17x12 inch jelly roll pan. Bake 20 minutes or until lightly golden, stirring after 10 minutes. Transfer to wax paper and cool completely, about 20 minutes. Serve with vanilla yogurt and sliced bananas. Makes 6 cups.

Like I said, this immediately became a breakfast food. I had a recipe for a yogurt parfait that I found right around the time I decided to make the peanut butter granola, so I figured the best possible idea was to combine the two. Otherwise, I would not have had any use for the granola. It held up well when it was all being mixed together and there were even some small clumps that loosely formed. And when I spread it all out on the parchment paper, I was shocked at how much there really was. I mean, there was a ton of this stuff.

But it cooked nicely, and again with my oven, I could have backed the time off by about two minutes. There was a small burned taste when it all came out of the oven, but it wasn't very strong and was easily masked by the yogurt. It's probably not substantial enough to be used as a granola-type cereal, and I guess it could be a topping for some kind of apple crisp. But for me, it worked well as a parfait. I used Yoplait Vanilla yogurt and sliced up some banana and layered it all in a glass. Perfect! And portable, too. I took some in the mornings when I left for work and I was able to sneak in a few bites at stop lights. Maybe not the safest thing to do while driving, but I was fairly responsible about it, only driving with my knees when absolutely necessary.

And there you go! I'm sure there are a lot of other ways to use this granola, but the parfait was the easiest thing for me. And in the immortal words of Donkey from Shrek, "Everybody loves parfaits!"