Chocolate Peanut Butter Marbled Banana Bread

When I was younger, my sisters and I used to love peanut butter sandwiches with chocolate chips sprinkled on top. Then, as I got older, peanut butter and banana sandwiches became my fave. To think though, in all those years, it never occurred to me to combine all three for the ultimate taste sensation.

It's all good though, because I found a bread recipe that does just that - Chocolate Peanut Butter Marbled Banana Bread from Merlot's blog, Goddess of Baking. The recipe is an original creation of Emily from Sugar Plum (love her blog), and so I just knew I was in for something delicious.

The recipe makes a lot of batter. Altogether, I had enough to make three mini loaves and muffins besides. When it came to the muffins, I decided not to go through the trouble of swirling the two batters and simply just made two types of muffins - chocolate banana and banana peanut butter.



The loaves and muffins rise very high and the sprinkling of chocolate chips on top adds just the right touch (I used white chocolate chips and semisweet). The original recipe uses peanut butter chips and I just know that those would definitely go well with the bread. I don't think I'd be against the idea of using chopped up Reese's peanut butter cups either (oh boy would that ever be the best).


The bread was very yummy, but I couldn't really taste the peanut butter. I think if I had used the peanut butter chips, it would have stood out more. Strangely enough, I also found that I liked this more with the batters separate in the mini muffin form rather than all mixed together. The chocolate banana muffins were my especial favorite so, in a roundabout way, I've now found a great recipe for those.


Still, though, if you like the chocolate-peanut butter-banana combo, I highly suggest that you give this bread a try. At the very least, if you're like me, you'll have a batch of chocolate banana muffins that you'll adore.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Marbled Banana Bread (adapted from Goddess of Baking and Sugar Plum)

2 1/3 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3 medium bananas, very ripe and mashed
3/4 c. peanut butter
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. milk (I used fat-free yogurt)
1/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
chocolate chips or white chocolate chips (for sprinkling on top)

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter and flour a 9-inch loaf pan or three mini loaf pans + 1 mini muffin pan.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk in chocolate and peanut butter chips until combined.

Beat together bananas and peanut butter until creamy, about 1 min. Beat in sugars until creamy, about 1 min. Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined.

Gradually beat in flour mixture, alternating with milk, until well-combined - about 2 min. Remove half of the batter and put it into another bowl (about 2 cups). Sift the cocoa powder into one of the bowls and beat until combined. Alternate spoonfuls of banana batter and chocolate batter into the pan(s). When all the batter is in the pan(s), swirl a knife sparingly through the batters to marble them. Sprinkle with additional chocolate and peanut butter chips, if desired.

Alternately, you can do like I did and just spoon the batters separately into a mini muffin tin without combining them.

Bake for 60-65 min. (large loaf) or 40-45 min. (mini loaves) or 12-15 min. (mini muffins). Bread will rise up, turn deep golden brown, and a toothpick inserted into it will come out with moist crumbs attached.

Cool on a wire rack for 30 min. Run a knife around the outer edges and invert onto wire rack to cool completely before slicing.

For the mini muffins, you can press a chocolate chip into the middle of each one while the muffins are still warm (semisweet for the banana-peanut butter muffins and a white chocolate chip for the chocolate-banana muffins).

This recipe is linked to:
So Sweet Sundays
Muffin Mondays
My Meatless Mondays
Just Another Meatless Monday
Midnight Maniac Meatless Monday
A Little Birdie Told Me
Hearth n' Soul Hop
Tuesday Night Supper Club