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Elevate Your Favorite Banana Bread Recipe with Just 2 Ingredients

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These days most people have their go-to banana bread recipe! If you don’t have one, feel free to use my Banana Bread Recipe! It is a healthier version of the Starbucks one that I love so much.

But even banana fanatics want change every once in a while! Well, I am going to show you how to elevate your banana bread game with just 2 ingredients!

RELATED ARTICLE: How to store bananas for extended shelf life

Banana bread is the best homemade gift because it is easy to make, it holds up well and most people enjoy it. But how to do take it from just delicious to extraordinary?? Let me tell you!

Just imagine dropping off a loaf of banana bread at a friends house. They open the wrapper and are excited to try a piece. When they cut into it, they see it! It is a chocolate marbled banana bread!

Excitement breaks out and soon the whole house is there to give it a try and YOU are a hero!

The Two Ingredients to Marbled Banana Bread

The best part about marbled banana bread is that you can use your tried and true recipe. Just split the batter in half and in one half, add chocolate chips and cocoa powder.

It’s that simple! The sweetness from the bananas and your sweetener of choice will be enough to remove the bitter taste of the cocoa powder, leaving you with a delicious chocolate ribbon through the middle of your loaf.

picture of banana bread slices with chocolate swirls throughout

Real chocolate lovers will get a kick out of all the chocolate chips too! We used dairy free chocolate chips and it still turned out delicious!

How Do You Keep Banana Bread Moist?

When I first started giving banana bread as a gift, this is what I struggled with most. How do you keep it moist when the recipient won’t be eating it for a few days.

a stack of banana bread slices and a kid hand grabbing one

The trick is to keep the air off of the loaf. For some people this means wrapping it in plastic wrap or foil. I prefer to stay away from plastic so I use an airtight glass container. This is great because they can reuse the container once they eat the bread…so it is like two gifts in one.

Once sealed, the bread can be stored in the fridge for a week.

What Is the Difference Between Cocoa and Cacao?

You can read more on the differences between the two in this article. However, the main difference is that Cacao is kept as close to the natural cacao bean as possible. The bean has been cold pressed and is ground down into a powder.

Cocoa is the Cacao powder that is then roasted at high temperatures and some of the nutrition is lost.

two kids mixing banana bread batter

I always recommend Cacao powder because it is less processed and is said to retain the nutrition and health benefits of cacao. Now that consumers are becoming more health conscious, it is even easier to find in big stores like Costco and Kroger. If you can’t find it there, check out Thrive Market.

How Do I Know If Banana Bread Is Done?

If you are a seasoned baker, you can gently press the center of the loaf to see if it bounces back. If there is resistance, the loaf is done.

However for most cooks, sticking a toothpick in the center of the loaf is the best way to test. If you pull out the toothpick and it is clean, it is done. If it comes out with a little batter, it still needs more time.

Resist the urge to take if out too early. Once the loaf cools, you won’t want to put it back in the oven, as the edges could burn.

Marbled Banana Bread Recipe

Like I stated earlier, you can use your favorite recipe. Just follow along below.

I will be using THIS BANANA BREAD recipe.

Step 1: Make your banana bread batter as you normally would. Then split your batter in half, into two bowls.

Step 2: In one bowl, add 1/4 Cup (or more) Chocolate Chips

picture of 4 steps to making marbled banana bread

Step 3. To the same bowl with the chocolate chips, add 3 Tablespoons Cacao Powder and mix until just incorporated. Do not over mix or the bread will be dry

Step 4. Drop about 1/4 Cups of the plain batter into a greased bread pan.

Step 5. Drop about 1/4 Cups of the chocolate batter into the same bread pan. Alternate between the two batters until you run out. There is no wrong way to do this. You will just end up with a unique pattern each time!

Run a knife through the batter back and forth to drag the two batters between each other and swirl the colors

By on December 20th, 2019

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