Double Chocolate Banana Bread with Peanut Butter Icing

A few weeks ago my youngest sister came over so that I could help her make Almond Biscotti for her boyfriend. Well, I mostly sat by and supervised. She did all the work. (Since that time, she came over again to make those same almond biscotti for her boyfriend’s family. Yup, they’re that good!) We talked and laughed so much. It was a great day in the kitchen. 🙂 I wanted to bake something for her to take home and I’d been looking for an excuse to make this quick bread. This is the best quick bread that I’ve made so far. Intrigued?

This is a sweet chocolate banana bread topped with peanut butter icing and miniature Reese’s peanut butter cups.

Double Chocolate Banana Bread with Peanut Butter Icing Recipe
(Makes 1 loaf)

Ingredients for Bread:

1/2 cup (equivalent to 1 stick) butter
3/4 cup white sugar
2 large bananas
1 egg
1/2 cup light sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 and 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Ingredients for Peanut Butter Icing:

1/2 cup peanut butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup skim milk

Topping:

1/4 cup mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, chopped

Directions for Bread:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease a 9 x 5 loaf pan and set it aside.
In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar.
Mix in the bananas.
Mix in the egg, sour cream, and vanilla extract.
In a sifter, sift the flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda into the wet ingredients. Mix all of the ingredients together until just combined.
Gently fold in the chocolate chips.
Pour the batter into the greased pan and bake it for about 55 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let the bread cool completely. (This is important so the icing works properly without running all over the place.)
Remove the bread from the pan.
Drizzle the icing over the top of the bread.
Sprinkle chopped mini Reese’s peanut butter cups on top.

Directions for Peanut Butter Icing:

In a small bowl, microwave the peanut butter for 30 seconds or until it’s runny.
Stir in the powdered sugar and milk.

Store in an air tight container on the counter, refrigerator, or freezer.

As with most recipes that call for bananas, please make sure that they are very ripe. It simply makes it taste better.

I’m not usually a proponent of sifting the dry ingredients because I don’t think it’s necessary in most cases (as long as you measure the flour correctly). However, I always sift cocoa powder because it seems that’s the only way to get out all the lumps. (Imagine making hot cocoa with cold water. No amount of stirring will ever break up the dry powder.) Since I was dirtying the sifter, I figured I’d sift the rest of the dry ingredients.

This bread is so moist. Thank you, bananas and sour cream. 🙂

I love banana bread and I love chocolate and wait for it, I love peanut butter, so it wasn’t a stretch that a combination would be a winner. Not only is there cocoa in this bread, but I’ve loaded it up with a lot of chocolate chips. Oh yum, double the chocolate!

This sweet bread tastes amazing on its own so if you find you are missing ingredients and are stuck in a blizzard you don’t need to add the icing. However, if you are a peanut butter fan, then you really should make it too!

I had some leftover icing and the left overs double as an awesome dip for pretzels or graham crackers.

I couldn’t resist adding more chocolate and peanut butter on top of this decadent bread. (I keep calling this a “bread” but it’s really more of a dense cake.) The mini Reese’s peanut butter cups offer a delicious shift in texture.

I think chocolate is perfectly acceptable at breakfast time so my sis and I sampled it the next morning after I photographed it. Yummo! I wish I hadn’t given her the whole thing to take home. My husband didn’t even get a chance to sample it! Guess that means I’ll need to whip it up again. 🙂

Rating: