Ashlee over at A Year In The Kitchen chose "The Black and White Banana Loaf" for this weeks "Tuesdays with Dorie" baking event. I don't like bananas in cakes that much, I prefer them caramelized in pan with pancakes. The more I was surprised by a delicious cake.

Of course you can't expect a fluffy cake with bananas as main ingredient. But even if the cake was dense, I didn't have the feeling I did something wrong. That's how the banana loaf crumbles ...

What I really enjoyed were the banana chocolate muffins I made. There was enough dough so I considered making some extra muffins. I took them out of the oven after 50 minutes. They were really nice and easy to transport.

I sure will make these again in case of left over bananas!

Here's the recipe:

Black and White Banana Loaf (Adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking from My Home To Yours)

1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 1/2 ripe bananas, mashed
Grated zest of 1/2 lemon
1 squirt of fresh lemon juice (or 1 ts if you like!)
1 tablespoon dark rum
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
10 tablespoons (1 stick plus 2 Tbsp) unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 325 F. (Butter and flour an 8 1/2" X 4 1/2" loaf pan).

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg.

In a small bowl, mixed together mashed bananas, lemon zest, juice and rum.

In a medium heat-safe bowl, add 2 tablespoons butter and chocolate - heat on medium power in the microwave, stirring every 20 seconds or so, until smooth.

In a large mixing bowl, beat together the remaining 8 tablespoons of butter until creamy. Add both sugars and cream together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until well combined. Mix in the vanilla. It is ok if the mixture looks curdled.

Add half of the flour mixture and mix just until the flour is absorbed. Pour in the milk and mix until blended. Be sure to scrape down the bowl at least once. Add the rest of the flour mixture and mix just until combined. Fold in the mashed banana mixture.

Add just under half of the banana batter into the melted chocolate mixture - stir until blended. Drop alternating spoonfuls of the two batters into loaf pan. Use a knife to swirl the two batters together.

Set the loaf pan on a thick baking sheet (or two regular baking sheets, stacked on top of each other), and place in the oven. Bake until very golden and a skewer placed in the center of the loaf comes out almost clean, about 80 to 90 minutes. Be sure and check to see if the top is browning too quickly - if that's the case, cover the top with foil and continue baking. Remove and place pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes - remove the loaf from the pan and continue to let it cool.

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