Who doesn’t like banana bread…Especially when those bananas on your counter start to turn brown faster than you can eat them. Its always the perfect excuse to make a loaf.
For years my go-to recipe for banana bread recipe has been from the ever popular 1980’s The Silver Palate Cookbook…although I have tried many others, I have always gone back to Silver Palate.
I recently came across a banana bread recipe that came close to the Silver Palate recipe in the King Arthur Baking website with the exception of the fat and the use of white whole wheat instead of regular whole wheat. Based on the availability of my ingredients at the time of making this, I have to admit, this quick bread began to take on a life of its.
I did not have vegetable oil, so I used extra light olive oil. I added mini semi sweet chocolate chips and topped it with some leftover chocolate ganache that I saved from a previous bake. Suddenly my banana bread was more cake than bread…and I’m happy to report that it was soooo good!
With a moist and light crumb and the addition of the chocolate chips and ganache, it was begging me not to call it bread. Not sure if it qualifies as cake either, so…I just decided to refer to it as a banana loaf. You may also want to consider a scoop of your favorite ice cream with this…why not, right? You’re going to loaf it! Haha
Ingredients
- Loaf:
- 2 cups mashed very ripe bananas (about 5 or 454 g)
- 1/2 cup (99 g) extra light olive oil
- 1 cup (213 g) light or dark brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 cup (120 g) unbleached all purpose flour
- 1 cup (113 g) white whole wheat flour
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 3/4 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 3/4 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
Chocolate Ganache
- 6 oz. bittersweet chocolate (chopped or in chip form)
- 6 oz. heavy cream
Directions
Cake:
- For The Loaf: Set oven rack in the middle position and preheat oven to 350.°
- Grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan with baking spray and line the bottom and sides with parchment paper and lightly spray again.
- In a medium bowl whisk all dry ingredients together; flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt cinnamon and set aside.
- In a large bowl stir thoroughly mashed bananas, oil, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla.
- With a rubber spatula mix flour mixture into wet mixture until fully incorporated.
- Stir in chocolate chips evenly into batter.
- Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for about 60-75 minutes. Tent with aluminum foil the last 15 minutes if it starts to brown too quickly.
- Loaf is done when a cake tester or a pairing knife is inserted in the middle and it comes out clean. It should register 205 degrees on a digital thermometer.
- Allow to cool on a rack for 15 minutes. Remove loaf from pan and set on cooling rack under a sheet pan to catch excess chocolate ganache.
- To Make Ganache: Place chocolate pieces in small mixing bowl and set aside.
- In a small sauce pan, heat heavy cream until it comes to a gentle simmer.
- Pour hot cream over chocolate and allow chocolate to melt completely. Stir or whisk together until ganache comes to a creamy consistency.
- Pour ganache over loaf when it has cooled slightly but is still in liquid form.
- Allow ganache to set at room temperature or refrigerate before cutting for a cleaner cut.
Note: Scrape off any excess chocolate ganache that has collected on your sheet pan and store refrigerated in a air tight container for later use.