Marbled Peanut Butter Brownie Banana Bread

If I haven't mentioned before, but I love banana bread, more than anything, and especially my recipe for banana bread, and I promise I'll get around to posting it soon. But for today, I'm posting something a little more decadent, Marbled Peanut Butter Brownie Banana Bread. Possibly one of my favorite combinations ever is chocolate + peanut butter, no question. And I also love the combination of bananas + peanut butter. So I paired my favorite brownie recipe with a peanut butter banana bread recipe to make a moist, swirled bread, I'm thinking I might have to leave a couple slices out overnight and maybe make some french toast tomorrow? I think it's a good possibility. Also, for all those cooks out there who don't have the time to make homemade brownie & banana bread batter, here's a little secret... you could easily go to the grocery store and buy a box of brownie and banana bread mix and do the exact thing I did, but just a short cut recipe. It might not be quite as good, but it would be a hell of a lot easier! Well, I hope you enjoy the recipe, it's so many different flavors jam-packed into one loaf pan.

Marbled Peanut Butter Brownie Banana Bread

For the Brownie Batter:

1 ¼C AP Flour

1t Salt

2T Cocoa Powder, Dark & Unsweetened

11oz Dark Chocolate, Coarsely Chopped

2 Sticks Unsalted Butter, Cut into 1inch Pieces

1t Instant Espresso Powder

1 ½C Sugar

½C Light Brown Sugar

5 Eggs, Room Temperature

2t Vanilla

½C Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chunks

For the Peanut Butter Banana Bread:

2 Eggs

1C + 2T Sugar

2T Sour Cream

1t Vanilla

1C + 2/3C AP Flour

1t Baking Soda

¼t Cinnamon

½t Salt

½C Vegetable Oil

4 Ripe Bananas, Mashed

¾C Creamy Peanut Butter

½C Peanut Butter Chips

Directions: 

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and spray 2 loaf pans with Pam, and then set aside (or you could chose a bundt pan).

2. To Make the Brownie Batter: in a bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and cocoa powder. Meanwhile, put the chocolate, butter, and instant espresso powder into a double boiler on low heat. Stir occasionally until the mixture is smooth. Turn off the heat and add both of the sugars, whisking until combine. Remove the bowl from the double boiler, and let the mixture come to room temperature. Once at room temperature, add in 3 eggs and whisk until combined before adding the rest of your eggs, and then add the vanilla (but do not over-mix). Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate mixture and with a rubber spatula (not a whisk) fold the flour mixture into the chocolate until till barely combined, and then fold in the chocolate chunks. Set aside. 

3. To Make the Peanut Butter Banana Bread: in a standing mixer, beat together the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy, then add in the sour cream, creamy peanut butter, and vanilla and mix until incorporated. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. With the standing mixer at the lowest speed, add the flour mixture into the wet mixture in small increments. Next, slowly drizzle in the vegetable oil until just incorporated. In another small bowl, mash the ripe bananas until mushy. Fold the mashed bananas into the batter, and then fold in the peanut butter chips. Set aside.

4. To Make the Peanut Butter Brownie Banana Bread: pour equal amounts of the peanut butter banana bread into each loaf pan, repeat with the brownie batter on top of the banana batter. Then, alternate spoonfuls of banana and brownie batter into each pan, until all of the batter has been used. When all of the batter has been used, swirl the two batters with a knife for a marble effect. To finish it off, sprinkle the top of the loaves with some chocolate chunks and peanut butter chips.

5. Bake each loaf for an hour (or possibly an hour and 15 minutes) or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes clean. Cool in their pans for 20 minutes, then remove them and let them cool completely on a cooling rack for about an hour before slicing.

source: the baked brownie. chocolate peanut butter marbled banana bread.