Chocolate Banana Tea Loaf

Mom had some leftover very ripe bananas lying around the kitchen and she suggested we make a banana dessert with them, preferably some sort of banana bread. Sounded good to me. There's a first for everything, right? And after looking through some of the usual suspects, I decided to go with a new book this time, but not an entirely new theme. I seem to make things out of cookbooks bought in New York or based on restaurants or storefronts in New York. I guess I should start thinking outside the box (or island), but for now this did just great.

I picked a chocolate banana tea loaf bread from "Once Upon a Tart" written by Frank Mentesana and Jerome Audureau, with Carolynn Carreno. Their bakery is at 135 Sullivan Street in SoHo between Prince and Houston.




1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened, and a little extra for smearing in loaf pans
1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour;
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
6 very ripe bananas, mashed (riper the better)
1 cup cold sour cream

1. position your oven racks so that one is in the center of the oven.
preheat to 400 degrees.
grease the 2 5x9-inch loaf pans

2. whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium-size bowl

3. in a separate big bowl, cream the butter and sugar until mixture is creamy and fluffy and a light lemon-yellow in color.
with the mixer on low, beat in the eggs. add the banana and continue mixing at low speed until it is completely incorporated in the batter.

4. stir half of the sour cream into the wet ingredients. fold in half the dry ingredients. repeat until all is combined.

5. use a rubber spatula to scrape batter equally into the prepared loaf pans

6. place pans in the oven and bake for about 70-75 minutes (we made one loaf and only cooked it for about 50 minutes and it was a little bit on the raw side but it was still delicious, like a big banana oozing brownie). I even read the authors of the cookbook like to take it out of the oven really early to have the chocolate oozing out of the middle.

Here's a slice for you to try. I dolloped a small spoon of ricotta on there, just for kicks and it was actually delicious, and toned down the sweetness just a bit. Enjoy!