Peanut Butter Swirled Banana Bread w/ Chocolate Streusel

Hope you all enjoyed cookies and cream week last week! Stay tune for more themed week! *obnoxious wink*

I hope this banana bread sounds delicious. Because it totally was. I was drooling while the bread was still baking since it smelled SO GOOD in the oven!

This is the first banana bread I`ve ever made. Weird, since I do like banana bread. When my boyfriend gave me the Cook's Illustrated: The New Best Cook Recipe cookbook, I was THRILLED.

I was even more excited when I saw all the recipes inside. This book is GINORMOUS!! I saw that they included a banana bread recipe and it just stuck to me.

However, I wanted to add something more to it. Since my boyfriend lovesss peanut butter and chocolate (as mentioned before with these delicious cookies), I wanted to add peanut butter and chocolate into the bread. Of course, I top everything with streusel (sorryy, I made a typo on the main photo) and this was no exception!

My roommate mentioned that she loved banana bread, but since she`s not too fond of peanut butter, I only added the peanut butter swirled on one side. See? I`m so kind and always baking for others.

People, this is no ordinary banana bread. It has chocolate pieces inside. It has peanut butter swirled into it (always, chunky peanut butter for me!). It`s topped with chocolate streusel.

And it`s moist. Delicious. Just, wonderful.

This bread was mighty fine and mighty delicious. I loved the streusel and the moist banana bread together. It was bliss.

Peanut Butter Swirled Banana Bread with Chocolate Streusel

Adapted from Cook's Illustrated: The New Best Recipe

Yields: 1 loaf

Level: Easy

Total Time: ~80 minutes

(Print Recipe)

Materials Needed:

-          1 9inx5in loaf pan

-          parchment paper/oil spray

-          whisk

-          1 large sized bowl

-          2 rubber spatula

-          2 medium sized bowls

-          cooling rack

-          toothpick/skewer

-          pastry cutter/2 knives/2 forks

Ingredients:

For banana bread:

§  2 cups all purpose flour

§  3/4 cup granulated sugar

§  3/4 teaspoon baking soda

§  1/2 teaspoon salt

§  3 very ripe large bananas, mashed well

§  1/4 cup plain yogurt

§  2 large eggs, beaten lightly

§  6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

§  1 teaspoon vanilla extract

§  3 tablespoons of chopped chocolate

For chocolate streusel:

§  1/4 cup all purpose flour

§  1/4 cup brown sugar

§  1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

§  1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

§  4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small chucks

§  1/2 cup old fashioned oats

§  1-2 tablespoons chopped chocolate

For peanut butter swirl:

§  3-6 tablespoons of crunchy peanut butter (amount is up to you)

Directions:

1.      Line your loaf pan with parchment paper or spray it with oil.

2.      Adjust your oven rack to the lower-middle position.

3.      Preheat your oven to 350°F.

For the peanut butter swirled banana bread

4.      In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt with a whisk.

5.      In a medium bowl, mix together the mashed bananas, yogurt, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla extract with rubber spatula.

6.      Next, fold the wet ingredients (bananas, yogurt, etc) into the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, etc), along with the chopped chocolate until just combine (do not over-mix).

7.      Transfer the batter into your loaf pan.

8.      Swirl in your desired amount of chunky peanut butter with a toothpick or skewer. Set aside for now.

For the chocolate streusel:

9.      In the medium bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

10.  Cut in the cold butter with a pastry cutter, or two knives/2 forks.

11.  Mix in the chocolate pieces.

12.  Top the banana bread with the streusel and gently pat the streusel down onto the batter.

13.  Bake in the oven for about 55 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool the bread for about 5 minutes before transferring the bread onto a cooling rack. (Easier to do when you use parchment paper)