Okay, stop it right there! I know what you're thinking. Here comes one of those recipes Chef's like to dole out that are impossible for the home cook to make. Well... welcome to the Chef Larry Edwards world of reality 'cuz in my world nothing is impossible. You can make this dish and as usual I will walk you through it with the how-to pictures in the slideshow!
Now I should warn you, this is not your typical banana bread. This has a texture which is very delicate. There are no nuts involved (well, except for me). It is not dense as a Washington politician and from the title you can tell it is a little more healthy than usual since we will be using only whole wheat flour. Oh yeah, it is laden with chocolate!
So... take a deep breath (if you wheeze, throw the pack of cigarettes away) . Pour yourself a cup of good quality coffee (which of course means it won't be Starbucks) and say a silent prayer to Julia Child because you are about to enter the extreme zone!
Ingredients needed to make Chocolate Laced Whole Wheat Banana Bread (makes 1 loaf):
- 2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg, beaten
- 2 tsp. vanilla
- 2 bananas (peeled - duh!)
- 2 ounces dark chocolate, melted
Steps:
- Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottom of a 9x5 loaf pan with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl combine and whisk the whole wheat flour, baking powder and soda, salt and cinnamon.
- Into the bowl of a mixer (with the paddle attachment) add the butter and sugar and beat until light. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until well combined.
- Mash the bananas.Don't worry about getting them too gooey, they'll breakdown during the baking process.
- Add the bananas to the butter mixture and beat 1 minute.
- Slowly add the whole wheat flour mixture and beat until a batter forms.
- Spoon half the batter into the prepared pan. Over the batter add half of the melted chocolate and using a skewer (or butter knife) swirls the chocolate around (don't worry, you can't make a mistake here).
- Spoon the remaining batter over the swirled chocolate and then on top of the batter add the remaining melted chocolate and swirl it around (don't worry about going to deep into the batter, it doesn't matter).
- Place the pan in the oven and bake 50 minutes (or until done).
- Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan until it is at room temperature.
- Carefully remove from the pan, slice that sucker and pig-out!
The new cookbook from Chef Larry Edwards is now available from Amazon.com and bookstores worldwide. One of the most anticipated cookbooks of the year, "Edwardian Cooking: 80 Recipes Inspired by Downton Abbey's Elegant Meals."
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