Makes 12 slices
I was sooo totally kidding when I tweeted that I was working on a book called “Vegan Loafs Gone Wild”, and yet here I am with another lower-fat loaf! I don’t know, something about the ease of the loaf pan, the leisurely cooking time, and just the absolute loafiness of it.
Here we’ve got something that reminds me of pressing my face against the glass dessert case at my neighborhood Jewish bakery. Marbled treats were a childhood fascination and they still hold some of that “How did you do that?” wonder. What can I say, swirls of cocoa are an impressive feat!
It takes a little extra work, and a few extra mixing bowl, but isn’t it worth it to awaken that childhood intrigue? This banana bread is perfectly banana-y, and not too sweet. The outside of the loaf is a little crunchy after being baked, but if you leave it in Tupperware or plastic wrap at room temp overnight, it gets very moist. It tastes great both ways!
1 cup mashed very ripe banana
3/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons canola oil
1/3 cup almond milk (or your preferred non-dairy milk)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
6 tablespoons boiling water, divided
Prepare boiling water, no need to measure yet. Also, preheat oven to 350 F.
Mash the banana in a large mixing bowl until relatively smooth. It should take 3 average sized ones, but spoon the mashed ‘nanas into a measuring cup to make sure, then return to the mixing bowl. Beat in the sugar, canola oil, milk and vanilla.
Now add the flour, baking soda and salt and gently mix just to incorporate. It’s okay if there is some flour still visible, just be careful not to overmix at this point.
Scoop one cup of the batter up and transfer it to a separate mixing bowl. Now, in a small tea cup mix the cocoa powder with 3 tablespoons boiling water and stir vigorously with a fork until the chocolate is dissolved. Add this chocolate mixture to the one cup of banana and mix until the chocolate is thoroughly smooth and incorporated.
Now back to the original plain banana batter; add 3 tablespoons of boiling water and mix the batter just until relatively smooth.
Here comes the fun part, it’s time to marble! Lightly grease an 8×4 loaf pan. Scoop alternate 1/2 cupfuls of chocolate/banana batter into the loaf pan. Nothing has to be precise here, in fact, the more random, the better. Once all of the batter is in, take a butter knife and swirl it through the batter in circular directions for about 10 seconds.
Bake for 55 minutes. Use a butter knife to test for doneness. Let cool and enjoy!
Oh! Can’t wait to try. The other banana bread recipe on PPK is my absolute favorite!
Oh I am so all over this.
and just as i was wondering how best to use the 3 very ripe bananas i have in my kitchen… brilliant!
I’ve been meaning to marble! Looks so fantastic!
Yummers. I’ve made a chocolate banana marble loaf before from this recipe http://www.passion4eating.com/2010/04/banana-chocolate-squirrel-cakes/ which looks pretty similar and it was delicious and oh so pretty. Great that this one is low fat though!
Mmm that one looks great, too!
hot damn! that looks delish. It is finally cold enough to commence major baking operations, and this is gonna be first on my list!
Dilemma: which to make first? The pumpkin chocolate loaf, or the marbled banana bread? Or perhaps a pie?
I have this in the oven right now! I can’t wait to see how it turns out.
That was fast!
yum, gonna try it this weekend. question…what happens when you ‘overmix’?
It can get rubbery. Banana and pumpkin especially like to get rubbery!
Verdict: Delicious! I added chopped walnuts to the top.
I DID reduce the sugar a bit and it is still sweet enough to feel decadent and desserty.
I think that is a great title! 🙂
Gah! I made regular banana bread this morning! I wish I had waited until I saw this. Looks amazing.
I’m so doing this tonight! Luckily, I already have 3 very ripe bananas in the fridge. Thanks!!!
isa – if i replaced 1c banana with 1c pumpkin…. do you think that would work out just fine and dandy?
I don’t see why not!
omg can’t wait to make it. the pumpkin was out of this world, but in my heart i am a banana-lover.
I want to try this! Made the pumpkin pie brownies tonight. Delicious!
Oh wow. I already make your other banana bread *weekly* with my little boy- he and my husband are addicted! Can’t wait to try this one, too!!
Awesome! I have ripe bananas on my counter right now, was going to make a double batch of your Banana Flapjacks from VB, but now, hummm…
XO
This is in the oven right now!!
Is your next book going to be a vegan bread book? *fingers crossed*
I have it in the oven right now and I’m so excited to taste!! I added an extra 3 tbsp of boiling water to the cocoa powder by mistake. Will that mess up the recipe?
just put it in the oven,can’t wait to try it!
I subbed whole wheat pastry for all purpose flour and it turned out nom-rific. It’s a just a little less pretty though. Quick vegan bread question, Isa–have you ever attempted vegan Challah before?
well, i made mine this evening. and it’s great!
http://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/296615_10150337840561504_674931503_8450930_1107729106_n.jpg
A nice idear to turne banana in there. In Germany we call it
“Marmor Kuchen”. Thats a old favor, that everybody know her.
This is very pretty. I am going to try this. I am kind of upset that there is only ONE banana, and you are very specific about that. Can you do a recipe for lowfat banana bread that tastes good? If you feel like it of course. Every recipe I see has 1 stick butter. I am not sure what to substitute that with?
Yeah, there are 3 bananas, which equals one cup. And it is low in fat. Although you can usually sub most of the fat with applesauce.
This looks really delicious! Gorgeous swirls! 🙂
@Anna… The recipe actually calls for approximately 3 bananas which equal approximately 1 cup mashed! The only fat is a couple of tablespoons of canola oil, so it’s already super low fat in my book…
Unsweetened or sweetened almond milk?
I used unsweetened, but either would be fine.
I must have done something seriously wrong as mine was only ~1.5″ high.. the flattest banana bread you’ve ever seen! LOL
It wasn’t done at all, even after adding another 30 min baking time.. I can’t remember what I did differently from your recipe, but I must have taken the wrong turn! LOL -The only good thing were the swirls, they came out nice! 😉
I’ll try again another time!
Made this Twice yesterday 🙂 Soo glad its low fat, lol!!
i made it twice in two days because it disappeared while i was at work. awesome recipe!
I made a modified version (ww pastry flour, less sugar) and it was still NOMABLE! Being devoured as I type this.
i made this today, added walnuts to the top of the batter and hubby and i really enjoyed it! thanks for the great recipe- super easy to follow and very moist. i made mine in a 5×8 rectangle pyrex dish.. and the bananas were used straight from the freezer, where i toss them as soon as they become too ripe to eat. i just removed them from the freezer (black as can be) and peeled and mashed them, no need to thaw. 🙂 thanks again for this wonderful recipe!
mmmmmmmm…..so goooooood! I used whole wheat flour instead and baked them in a muffin pan. It made 12 muffins and I baked them for 18 minutes. perfection.
Good to know, thanks!
Deelish!! Super-moist on the inside with a perfect amount of crisp on the outside. Even my banana-hatin’ 7-year old absolutely loved it (a miracle in my eyes). I guess chocolate is the great peacemaker…
Oh my coworkers are going to love me!
Turned out super flat but looked and tasted really good.
I baked mine in a 13×9 dish for 20 minutes and it was light, fluffy, and delicious. I couldn’t really taste the chocolate marbling too much, but it was very pretty. According to my haphazard math, if you cut it into 18 pieces (totally reasonable in a 13×9 pan), then each serving comes to about 100 calories. Awesome!
I made these the other day in mini loaves and they turned out amazing!! I will definitely be making them again soon!
This looks absolutely amazing, and just the thing I’m craving right now! I can’t wait to make this.
Made this today. Because a few mentioned how flat the bread was, I added 1 1/2 tsp baking powder. Next time, I’ll add more, because it still didn’t rise as much as I’d like. Neverthess, the bread was sooo good! I find the chocolate part to be tasty and chocolaty enough. I can imagine toasted walnuts would make this even yummier.
Wow, I wonder what’s up because mine wasn’t flat at all (as you can see in the pics.)
made this earlier today! It was perfect!! Loved this recipe.
I made this last night and it was so good and fun to prepare. I hadn’t baked something marbled before. There is very little cocoa powder in it, but yet it tastes chocolaty. I used only whole wheat pastry flour and the bread turned out flat… I wonder if this is because of the flour I used, or because I didn’t sift in the baking soda, which was sort of crumbly and definitely not well integrated?
And Lexi mentioned (a comment up) having used baking powder… well, the recipe calls for baking soda, doesn’t it? =)
i made this last night with wholewheat flour and 3 bananas that have been languishing in my freezer for months and it turned out really well! it’s scrumptious, and my omnivorous bf agrees.
i baked it for ~43mins in a 8″ round pan and that seemed just right.
@anna it’s one cup banana! i read it wrong the first time over also 🙂
My family loves this bread. I have to make 2 loaves a week. Also this makes some of the best french toast ever. Thanks Isa.
Oh no! But but but… I already have a favourite banana bread recipe! The one in Veganomicon! What am I going to do now?
(Just kidding — I’ll alternate!)