Leftovers create unexpected treat

Cherries and chocolate enhance basic bread

I was going through my pantry today and spied some ingredients that never saw the light of the holiday cooking frenzy, namely nuts and candied cherries. It would be a shame to throw them out, so why not use them in a banana nut bread I was getting ready to bake?

The first image in my mind was cherries and fudge sauce, because this is a well-known pairing in banana splits. I was preparing to make banana nut bread anyway, so I decided to tweak the recipe to resemble the traditional banana and ice cream dish. Chocolate is a must for me, so I divided 1/3 of the batter and added 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder in a separate bowl. This may be too much if you’re not a dark chocolate enthusiast, so 1/4 cup may be all that is needed for a less intense taste.

Next, I poured half the plain batter into a loaf pan and dotted the surface with tablespoons (about six) of the cocoa batter. A bamboo skewer came in handy as my stir stick. I made figure-eight swirls in the batter, then poured the remaining plain batter over the top of this layer and repeated the process with the chocolate tablespoon drops, then swirled again.

The batter came out a nice marbled shade of golden yellow and dark brown, which blended well with the bright red candied cherries. Of course, I had to add ice cream (peppermint in this case) on either side of the bread slice. This may be a new way of eating a banana split for me. I like the way the warm bread contrasted with the ice cream.

Here’s to a new twist on an old favorite!

Banana Split Bread

2 large, ripe bananas, mashed

1/3 cup candied cherries

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup whole or 2 percent milk

3 tablespoons canola oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 eggs

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/3 cup cocoa

1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used black walnuts)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease loaf pan.

Combine bananas, cherries and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Add milk, oil and vanilla; beat in eggs one at a time. In a separate bowl, sift dry ingredients except for the cocoa. Add to mixture, including the nuts. Reserve 1/3 of mixture in the smaller bowl.

Mix in cocoa. Pour half the original (non-chocolate) mix into the loaf pan. Drop cocoa mixture by tablespoonful and stir with a swizzle stick or skewer. Pour remaining batter over the top and repeat process. Bake about 1 hour or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Servings: 10.

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Posted by admin on Jan 20 2011. Filed under Sweet Tooth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry