Marbled Chocolate Banana Bread

I love chocolate!
And this recipe, tweaked from Cooking Light, pairs bananas and chocolate in an irresistible way!

Here's a quick tip for you: 
Make a double or triple batch and freeze the finished product in your freezer.  After a quick defrost, this bread is piping hot and just as fresh as when it popped out the oven! 

Marbled-Chocolate Banana Bread

Nutritional Info (one slice):

Calories: 183; Fat: 4.7 g 

Makes one loaf, 18-20 muffins, or 32 mini-muffins.

Ingredients

2 c all purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 c sugar

1/4 c unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 c ripe bananas, mashed (about three whole bananas)

1 large egg or 1/4 c. egg substitute*

1/2 c plain low-fat or fat free yogurt*

1/2 c semisweet chocolate chips

Cooking spray

*I use a whole large egg and fat-free yogurt
(non-fat vanilla yogurt is excellent too!).

Directions

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.

Lightly spoon the flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife.  Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk.

Place the sugar and butter in a large bowl, and beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about one minute).  Then add the banana, egg, and yogurt and beat until blended.  Add the flour mixture and beat at a low speed just until moist.

Place the chocolate chips in a a medium microwave-safe bowl and microwave on high for one minute or until almost melted, stirring until smooth.  Cool slightly.  Add one cup batter to the chocolate, stirring until well combined.

{Loaf Pan}

Spoon the chocolate batter alternately with the plain batter into a 8 1/2 x 4/1/2 inch loaf pan coated with the cooking spray.  Swirl the batters together using a knife and bake at 350 degrees for approximately one hour and fifteen minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out just clean.   Be careful not to over bake!

{Muffins}

If making muffins, gently fold the chocolate mixture back into the plain batter, and use a knife to swirl the batters together.  Then, spoon the batter into a muffin pan sprayed liberally with Pam, and bake as directed above for approximately half of the cooking time.  Note:  The mini-muffins will cook even faster, at approximately 12-15 minutes (oven times will vary).

Cool the loaf for ten minutes in the pan on a wire rack, and then remove from  the pan.  For the muffins, cool for just a few minutes in the pan before removing (I find that they stick if you leave them in longer).  Once on the rack, cool slightly longer and then serve!

Enjoy!