Peanut Butter Banana Bread with a Chocolate Swirl

Check out that chocolate swirl!

Banana bread is almost a staple in our household. When I married my husband, he came with a banana bread recipe. For years, I’d worry that he’d notice if I’d messed with her recipe. But I have slowly managed the transition to my own recipe. Some of the changes have included switching up to whole wheat flour, reducing the sugar, and adding a little yogurt. But none of those changes compare to the most recent upgrade – adding peanut butter. I was messing around making homemade peanut butter (more about that later) and happened to look over at the brown bananas in the bowl. Suddenly banana bread and peanut butter had merged in my brain. The rest is history.

First, a bit on the bananas. You probably already know you want the brown ones. They are sweeter, have more flavor and mash better. But did you know you can peel and freeze the brown ones and then your banana bread making never needs to be controlled by the bananas again! Just pull out the bananas and give them 5 or 10 minutes to thaw before mashing. And I just use a potato masher to squash the bananas.

As a matter of fact, I usually make this recipe in a bowl and combine it with a wooden spoon, dough hook or rubber spatula – honestly, whatever is closer. The trick being not to over mix once you add the dry ingredients to the wet.

Making the swirls

The chocolate swirl often seems like a lot of extra work to me. While it does put this bread up a notch, you can skip it and just fold the chocolate chips into the finished batter. Not as dramatic, but it does save time and a couple dirty dishes. And it still tastes great. Along that line, you can also leave the chocolate out completely. I’m not recommending it – but it is theoretically possible.

To make the swirls, spoon the two batters into the bowl in layers. Try to distribute the chocolate batter around the pan and once the batter is all in, use a knife to cut a wave pattern into the batter from one end of the pan to the other. Don’t make it too complicated – it will turn out great no matter how you do it.

And while we are talking about pans – use a larger 9×5 pan for this recipe. And remember to oil the pan. Even in my super non-stick awesome pan, the chocolate parts seemed to stick differently than the non-chocolate and it can make for a messy looking bread.

I hope you enjoy! Let me know how it turns out!