Tuesdays with Dorie: Black-and-White Banana Loaf

I was indecisive about this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, a chocolate-swirled banana bread that was chosen by Ashlee of A Year in the Kitchen (you can find the recipe there).

At first, I wasn't going to make it because I don't really like banana bread. Then, I realized that I had all the ingredients on hand, including a few over-ripe bananas in the freezer. I figured I could take the loaf to work on Saturday. But, it was really hot here over the weekend. The weatherman actually forecasted "stifling heat and suffocating humidity." So, I wasn't about to bake something for over an hour in my already-hot, central-air upstairs only house. The temperature was a bit cooler Sunday evening, and I decided to make the loaf--finally--in an attempt to procrastinate averaging final grades for my summer classes.


And, boy oh boy! Am I glad I made it! It was really good!! The banana flavor wasn't overwhelming and was so good with the chocolate. Unlike most banana breads, this is more like a dense, moist cake.

The recipe is basically a banana & rum batter (I used Wild Turkey American Honey, because I had no rum in the house), half of which is mixed with melted chocolate & butter then marbled together.


I was pretty impressed with the marbling, if I do say so myself. And it was easy to do. I simply used an ice cream disher to layer scoops of the two batters. First, a scoop of white batter went into one corner of the loaf pan. A scoop of chocolate batter was added next to it...and so on until the first layer was finished. I then alternated scoops, layering chocolate on top of white and white on top of chocolate, until I used all of the batters. I ran a butter knife gently through the batters to swirl them just a bit.

I like this so much that I plan to make another loaf soon. Well, as soon as the weather cools down again.