Banana Bread with Dark Cocoa and Peanuts
Seems like a good day for baking to me
Hi!
I am spending today, MLK Day, at the Volkswagen service center in Brooklyn, where my car will be getting some routine maintenance and I will be waiting around. If it weren’t for this strategically-scheduled appointment, I’d be at home, adhering to my ongoing news blackout, and making another batch of this banana bread. I am extremely pleased with this banana bread, my first ever, and have made it four times in a week. (The recipe is below, in a new format I’m trying out. Let me know your thoughts.)
Surely I am not the first person to pair peanuts with banana bread. And yet … I haven’t seen it? As a friend said, “they’re always hitting you with the walnuts.” Or pecans. But bananas and peanuts go together like bananas and peanut butter! Classic. There’s some dark cocoa in the batter, too, which felt very banana split adjacent. I’ve never liked pieces of chocolate in my banana bread, and let the cocoa (specifically the cocoa rouge from Guittard) do the heavy lifting. I also decided not to muck up the crumb with any peanut pieces—they’re all on top, along with some crunchy sugar and flaky salt. Of course, if you’re allergic, leave the nuts out. The sugar and salt will still make a nice crunchy top.
I looked at a lot of other b-bread recipes before starting my trials. Couple things I am doing differently: I raised the temp to 375°F and advise baking the loaf in a metal pan on a rimmed baking sheet to encourage better browning (it still takes almost an hour and a half, but the browning payoff is real.) A regular glass Pyrex works too, I made sure. I also did away with added dairy in the form of sour cream or yogurt, even though some of my favorite versions include that. It just wasn’t doing the cocoa, which is also slightly sour, any favors. And there’s no need for a stand mixer. I used one to beat the butter and sugar in the first iteration, but the crumb came out really light and dry, and felt more like a pound cake. You don’t need any special equipment for where I landed, and the bread is better for it.
This recipe is going to be in Book Three—which is due in [[coughs]] 85 day—and probably my publisher doesn’t want me to share it with you early. I truly don’t care. Life is short. You should have it now.