Initially, I wanted to make a cinnamon chocolate swirl for the banana bread. A few weeks ago, I fell in love with Joanne’s recipe for chewy cinnamon white chocolate chip coconut cookies at Eats Well With Others. The recipe called for cinnamon chips, something I had never heard of. I was on a quest for them last week, but alas, none of the supermarkets I frequent carried these cinnamon morsels. When it came time to baking, I thought, wouldn’t it be great if I added a cinnamon chocolate swirl to the bread?! Cinnamon + chocolate perfectly co-existing. I was sold on the idea, so I melted a 1/2 cup of chocolate chips and added a tablespoon of ground cinnamon to the sauce. Next, the moment of truth—the taste test. The verdict: a disappointment. The cinnamon flavors were muted by the semi-sweet chocolate chips. The chocolate certainly tasted different, but not enough for me to detect cinnamon in it. I made a fresh batch of chocolate sauce for my banana bread, using chocolate chips only and added it onto the banana bread batter. To make the chocolate swirl on the bread, I poured the banana batter into a greased loaf pan first. Then, I added dollops of the chocolate sauce and, with a butter knife, swirled the batter and chocolate together. If you want more layers of chocolate inside the banana bread, add half of the banana bread into the loaf pan and top it with a few dollops of chocolate sauce. Next, add the remaining banana mixture and top it with the chocolate. Then, use a butter knife to create a swirl. Even though the cinnamon chocolate experiment wasn’t a success, the final version was wonderful! Oh, and did I mention that it is gluten-free? FUN BANANA FACTS
The word “banana” comes from the Spanish and Portuguese words banana (for the fruit) or banano (for the tree).Until the late 19th century, bananas were considered to be luxuries in America. Now, they’re less than a dollar for a pound (at least for now)!The most common variety of banana that we see in supermarkets are from the Cavendish subgroup. There are increasing news reports suggesting that the global production of Cavendish bananas could be at risk because of a fungus, also known as the Panama disease. The cause: lack of genetic diversity in the crop. What will I do without bananas??
