chocolate sourdough banana bread
Now that most of my time and energy are spent baking sourdough loaves every day, I have a good stash of sourdough discard in the fridge patiently waiting to be made into something. So far I’ve made cinnamon rolls and bagels with my sourdough discard, and then last night I tried chocolate sourdough banana bread and it’s GREAT. Moist without being too soft, sweet without being cloying, and a little tangy. I’m into it, and I hope you will be, too! (Also, apologies for a lack of pictures, it was dark when I was making it last night and I didn’t snap any cute pics, oops).
Image by the talented Jeannie Phan
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups AP flour (plus extra for dusting pans)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
4 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 cup unsalted butter, softened (plus extra for greasing the pans)
1 cup sugar (I used evaporated cane sugar)
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups mashed super-ripe bananas (about 4 bananas)
1/4 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups sourdough starter discard
2 cups chocolate chips (I used dark chocolate chips)
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9 x 5 loaf pans with butter and then sprinkle flour inside the pan to coat. Tap out excess flour and set pans aside.
In a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. In a separate bowl (I used my stand mixer) cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then beat in the eggs, and switch to the paddle attachment (or a wooden spoon if you’re mixing by hand) to stir in the vanilla, banana, sour cream, and sourdough starter.
Gently stir the dry ingredients into the wet, and then fold in the chocolate chips (if you want to sprinkle chocolate chips on top of the loaves, set some aside now). Pour the batter into the pans and sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips on top (if you are doing this). Bake for 45 minutes - 1 hour until a toothpick or knife inserted into the center comes out clean.
Allow the loaves to cool for ten minutes before turning them onto a rack to cool completely
Makes two 9x5 loaves
Recipe adapted from a King Arthur recipe.