Banana Chocolate Bread

 

 Banana Bread with Muscovado and Chocolate

 from the Best Cookbooks When I first made this, I didn’t have much muscovado sugar in my cabinet.  However, I improvised by substituting 

Ingredients 

35 grams of molasses for the remaining 90 grams of sugar and

 110 grams of light brown sugar.

 2 cups (250 grams) all-purpose flour

 2 teaspoons baking powder

 A marbled cake baked of kosher salt

 1/2 cup (1 stick, or 125 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature

 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon (235 grams) muscovado sugar

 14 ounces (400 grams) ripe bananas (peeled weight), or about 3 medium bananas

 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions 

 two hefty eggs 3 1/2 ounces (100 grams) dark chocolate, chopped to the size of fine gravel

 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Grease a standard-size loaf pan (approximately 9 1/2 by 5 inches), and line it with parchment paper.

 Mix the flour, baking powder, and kosher salt in a small bowl. Whisk to combine. In another bowl, mash the bananas with a fork.  They should still be lumpy, not fully pureed.  Stir in the vanilla.

 In yet another bowl (sorry!), beat the eggs lightly with a fork.

 

Using an electric mixer lovely, beat the butter briefly, just to get it going, and then add the sugar.  Continue beating until the mixture is light, fluffy, and the color of coffee with milk. 

 Add the beaten eggs, and continue to beat.  (If the mixture looks like it’s curdling at any point, add a spoonful of the flour mixture.)  Add the chocolate and the mashed bananas, and beat to mix.  With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture.  Beat to incorporate.

 Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan, and smooth the top.  Bake for about 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out moist but clean.  If there is any sign of wet batter, continue baking for a few more minutes, tenting the top with foil if it’s browning too much.

 The finished loaf needs 15 minutes to cool in the pan. Use a small knife to loosen the sides, and then carefully remove the loaf using the parchment liner. Cool completely before slicing.

 Yield: 1 loaf