Yes, you’ve seen this on our site before. However we’ve updated this recipe! Reducing the flour, adding more sour cream, and a dash of cocoa powder–it’s a perfect recipe for any and everyone! Marble cakes, loafs, or anything with a swirl seems pretty intimidating, but not this! We’ll show you the easiest (and simplest) method for anyone who wants to create a dynamic swirl in their baked goodies. This Marble Chocolate Banana Bread is sure to be the highlight out of all your dessert treats this week. It’s moist, rich in flavor, has a tender crumb, and not to mention–bananas! (yet another recipe to add to our banana-obsessed blog)
Our favorite chocolate/banana combos lately:
Marble Cakes + Chocolate Swirls
The secret to marbled cakes is 2 different batters and a knife. The marble swirl is created by alternating the batters in the cake/loaf pan. Dolloping the batter in different spots and taking a knife and swirling it around in the pan. That’s all. A super simple and easy way to have a swirl in your breads. This works not only with chocolate vanilla, but any flavor. Adding a few drops of food coloring to a portion of your batter and follow this same method. I love using chocolate because it’s the easiest way (and most flavorful way) to get that distinct swirl in the bread. Our Vegan Matcha Banana Bread is another way to incorporate flavor + a fun swirl in your banana bread!
Banana Bread Tips
Bananas are the key flavors in this recipe! It’s a perfect substitute for eggs, and it carries most of the flavor in the donuts! Here’s a few things to keep in mind when baking banana bread:
- Use overripe bananas
- The brown spotted bananas you’re thinking of throwing out? Don’t! These are filled with the perfect flavors and ready to be thrown into your desserts!
- Mash bananas before adding it to your batter
- No one wants clumpy bananas throughout their batter. Mashing bananas helps smoothly blend in all of the ingredients
- Use the correct banana size
- Bananas can be large, medium, or small. Each recipe should specify which size of bananas to use. Adding too much banana can give you a longer bake time, or using too little banana can give you no flavor with a shorter bake time.
Our Banana Nut Muffins w/ Coffee Streusel & are two other popular banana recipes on this site!
Key Ingredients:
Bananas: Use overripe bananas & mash the bananas before adding it to your batter.
Cinnamon + Nutmeg: The spice paring in all amazing banana recipes!
Vegetable Oil: I love to pair oil with sour cream (or greek yogurt) because it brings out a softer, moist cake crumb.
Brown & White Sugar: We used a combo to add depth to our banana bread! The brown sugar adds rich flavor while the white sugar balances it out. We didn’t want to thick of a banana bread–where it would overpower the matcha.
Eggs: The base structure of this loaf is eggs! For a non dairy alternative, sub flax eggs, applesauce, or use Bob’s Red Mill Egg Replacer.
Sour Cream: This a richer flavor & great tasting loaf! You can sub greek yogurt or your favorite dairy-free vanilla yogurt.
Cocoa Powder: The heart of this swirl! Add 1 tbsp to 1/2 cup of the batter & mix together.
Now, let’s get into this recipe!
Marble Chocolate Banana Bread
INGREDIENTS
- 1¾ cups all purpose flour
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup white sugar
- 1 egg
- ½ cup sour cream
- 2 large bananas overripe
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- ½ cup chopped walnuts optional
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 350°F and grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan. Line the pan with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt together. Set the bowl aside.
- In a separate large bowl, beat the oil and sugars together. Slowly add in the egg, beating on medium speed until fully incorporated. Add in the sour cream and mix.
- Mash the bananas until they're smooth. Add the bananas and vanilla extract to the wet mixture and beat on medium speed. Slowly ad in the flour mixture and beat until fully combined. Add the chopped walnuts.
- Scoop ½ of the batter into a small bowl and mix it with the cocoa powder.
- Pour ½ of the original batter into the loaf pan. Dollop all of the cocoa batter mix into the pan. Top off the chocolate batter with the rest of the banana bread batter.
- Using a knife, swirl the banana bread batter around back and forth. Place in oven and bake for 55-60 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
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