VMF 6-3: Marbled

I thought I'd long baked my way around the banana muffin/quick-bread/sweet-baked-item world by now. Variations in recipes--a streusel topping here, some walnuts there, maybe some coconut shreds or chocolate chips to make everything really fancy--at one point or another, just didn't seem all that different from that familiar flavor profile. I've realized that putting banana into any baked good does, in fact, make said baked good taste like (surprise, surprise) banana--all well and good, until burnout hits. Then it's time to stay away from bananas for awhile.

But sometimes that bunch of bananas on the counter just do not want to ripen at the buyer's ideal pace. All of a sudden, yellow makes way for speckles of brown, and the fruit is beyond the point of straight-up snacking. Time to bake again.

I've made peace with the fact that bananas will always add its distinct flavor to everything it touches--in turn making those use-up-the-overripe-fruit baking projects less cumbersome. And hey, if I don't really feel like eating whatever form of quick-bread I inevitably bake, I know that a certain sugar-loving boyfriend will.

The last time I partook in overripe-banana-saving, I used a technique I had not yet thought to try for banana bread: marbling. Having read a few rave reviews of The PPK's Marbled Banana Bread, I decided it wouldn't hurt to mix up the normal quick-bread routine just a bit, and gave it a go. I must say, as simple as it sounds to dump cocoa powder into half of the recipe's batter, the gesture actually--surprisingly, refreshingly, thankfully--took what may have seemed to my banana-weary self "just another loaf of banana bread" up a notch or two. Yes, it still tasted like banana bread, with that familiar, moist crumb, but with a slight twist. Maybe the striking swirls won me over, although I'm pretty sure the addition of cocoa won me over.