Chocolate Swirl Banana Nut Bread

Banana nut bread has to be one of my very favorite quick breads!  It is so moist and oh so yummy!  The only thing that could possibly make banana nut bread any better would be.....CHOCOLATE!!!  What woman doesn't want a little bit of chocolate in her life?  I took my trusty recipe and gave it a twist.  And it is such a pretty bread when it is done.  The original banana bread recipe is from the Betty Crocker's New Cookbook.  It is my no fail choice for all recipes.

Chocolate Swirl Banana Nut Bread

1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup stick margarine or butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (3 to 4 medium)
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped nuts (I use pecans)
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350.  Grease bottoms only of 2 loaf pans, 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches, or 1 loaf pan, 9 x 5 x 3 inches, with shortening.

Mix sugar and margarine in large bowl.  Stir in eggs until well blended.  Add bananas, buttermilk and vanilla.  Beat until smooth.  Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt just until moistened.  Stir in the nuts.

Heat the chocolate chips in a small bowl in the microwave until it is melted and smooth.  Be careful to not over heat your chocolate as it will burn.  Pour about 1 cup of the already mixed batter into the bowl with the melted chocolate and stir until mixed.  Spoon chocolate batter alternately with plain batter (so you have stripes of plain and chocolate batter) into your pan and then swirl with a knife.  Do not over-swirl(is that a word?) or all of your batter will be chocolate and then you have a chocolate banana nut bread instead of a chocolate swirl banana nut bread. =)  


Bake 8 inch loaves about 1 hour, 9 inch loaf about 1 1/4 hours, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool 5 minutes in pans on wire rack.  Loosen sides of loaves from pans; remove from pans and place top side up on wire rack.  Cool completely before slicing.  Wrap tightly and store at room temperature up to 4 days, or refrigerate up to 10 days.