Last week Tuesdays With Dorie made almost-candy bars and this week we pretty much made cake. The official name of the recipe is Cocoa-Nana Loaf and it is in the breakfast section of the book, but I think the amount of sugar and chocolate in it qualifies it as cake. Not that any of this stopped me from eating it for breakfast, though I had to add some Clementine oranges and yogurt (non-fat plain yogurt complements it beautifully) in order to feel okay about eating something so chocolaty before 10 AM. On day two of this bread, I decided two things: I like it better in the afternoon and also chilled, which I thought gave it a nice fudgy texture.
I made just a few little changes: I subbed in three tablespoons of yogurt for butter (I do this a lot with quick breads and happened to have a stick of butter with three tablespoons missing), reduced the white sugar by a quarter cup, and replaced ¼ of the total flour, which was two cups, used with whole wheat flour. I considered leaving out the chocolate chips since there was so much cocoa powder, but Josh voted for them and I’d specifically told him to buy them earlier that evening, so they stayed. It seemed to take forever to bake (an entire episode of “Project Runway” plus an episode of “Models of the Runway”) and I might have overdone it just a touch.
Due to the incredible easiness of this recipe, the bread was definitely worth trying (anytime I can simultaneously make dinner and mix up batter without either suffering is great) and I have enjoyed it, but next time I have aging bananas I will likely make something else. Like Dorie’s Classic Banana Bundt Cake – love that one! This recipe rated a 7 for Deliciousness and a 2 for Effort, giving it an EDR of 3.5. Many thanks to Steph of Obsessed With Baking for giving us an excuse to have chocolate for breakfast. You can find the recipe here on Steph’s site and visit the TWD blogroll to see if the other bakers enjoyed the chocolate/banana combo.
20 comments:
A fine looking loaf! I wish I had made this one but I skipped this week because of Daring Bakers tomorrow. Today my work team and I are feasting on Chocolate Biscotti and Wholewheat Sables - absolutely delicious.
Love reading about your substitutions. Gives me courage to do the same. :-)
You know I never chill my cakes, but it sounds like that gave you an excellent result. I will try that next time.
I've always been fascinated by your evaluations. Today I'm just wondering, if you have to make three substitutions and send someone to the store for chocolate chips, why is the effort rating so low?
Love to read about your subs each week. I learn so much. I think you have great ideas for that. Guys were eating it for breakfast as well here, too. Go figure. They were happy with the recipe, and it was easy enough, saw where some made muffins with it, so might try that, too. Teens love portable food. Your bread/cake looks wonderful!
I love how dark and chocolatey your looks! I bet it was great chilled! And great jpb with all the subs! I loved this one!
I liked it better chilled as well. Looks lovely
Looks great! Maybe I might like it chilled. Didn't think much of it at room temperature.
It looks great! I love the combination of chocolate and orange... made me wish I did that! I'm glad you ended up liking this one though!
It turned out great Margot - I love your healthy subs in the recipe.
I like your photos! I like your healthy subs - I think every little bit counts.
Now you have me thinking about that banana bundt cake. That was so good!
I am in total agreement with your assessment of this cake/bread! We are the same person this week. (In fact, I wrote the whole post calling mine a cake before I went back and saw that Dorie tried to pawn it off as a bread. Not buying it!) I usually sub yogurt for part butter, too. Great call on reducing the sugar. Hmmm, now I'm in the mood for that banana bundt. So great!
Ahhh, I forgot to watch Project Runway last week! Thanks for the reminder - I'll be running off to watch it online later :)
I made muffins this week and thought they were tasty, but I'm with you - I'll use my bananas for something else next time. It was fun to justify eating chocolate for breakfast though!
OH! What lovely colours Margot! Love the orange on the blue and the chocolate next to it! The loaf looks fantatic too... all this seems to imitate some kind of masterpiece painting! wow.
sorry this only got a 7 for deliciousness, but I have to admit I picked this for easiness! Thanks for baking along with me!
It sure looks lovely. We thought it was good but not great, maybe we should have chilled it.
Mimi
It did take forever to bake, didn't it?! I'm glad you enjoyed this more than I did (which was pretty much not at all). Your loaf looks great.
Holy smokes that is one dark loaf! Did you use dutch-process cocoa? And I really like your changes - I'll try the yogurt trick next time.
Your loaf looks wonderful! I know, aging bananas were so looking at my Grandma's banana bread recipe but I am glad to have tried Dorie's. Great substitutions and your idea of chilling the bread/cake =)
I can just taste this with the yogurt and clementines. Putting this in the fridge to make it fudgy is very intriguing. I wouldn't pick this as my preferred use for aging bananas either (that banana bundt cake, however, is another story). I want to make it without the bananas because I think it would make an utterly decadent chocolate loaf for afternoon tea or a really stressful day at work. Not that I can predict those in time to bake for them, but still, it sure would make the stress more manageable, wouldn't it?
Your bread looks just perfect! Too funny, your comment about have to add Clementines and yogurt to make it okay to eat this bread for breakfast! I'm totally okay with chocolate for breakfast! =)
I like to read about your subs, I'm such a chicken (or most likely anal...) I have to follow the recipe exactly unless it mentions something else in the Playing Around section.
I'm a fan of Project Runway too! I need Tim in the kitchen encouraging me to 'Make it work!'!
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