Banana Pound Cake with Chocolate Chips

Bananas, chocolate, and I go way back.  In a banana split, as far as I’m concerned, the only purpose for the ice cream is to hold up the bananas and chocolate syrup.  And frozen bananas dipped in chocolate?

I’ll never forget the first time I had one of those — Knott’s Berry Farm when I was in the 7th grade and had one of my grandmothers in tow.  Okay, so probably the other way around.  But still.

Where was I?

Bananas on cereal, banana cream pie, banana ice cream.  When you’re on a diet, sliced bananas just barely frozen and dipped into non-fat Cool Whip is a cheat for some, but have you dipped one into creamy Greek yogurt with a drizzle of honey?  Shhhh….don’t tell anyone.

Bananas — I love them.  So you would think I always had them in the house, able to bask in their wonderfulness whenever I wanted, but no.  The guys in the house let them get brown.  I have to practically wave them under their noses to get them to notice, like it’s a chore to peel one and chew it.

How can anyone not sigh over the not too sweet flavor of the fruit, and realize you’ve just had dessert without all the fat, sugar, and calories?

Except there is this dessert — with bananas, of course.

And chocolate.

 

Banana Pound Cake.

With chocolate chips, of course.  Could there be anything better to have coffee or tea with early on a sunny morning?

2-1/4 c. all purpose flour
1 T baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 c. buttermilk
1/2 c. goat cheese
1-1/2 sticks (6 oz.) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 c. extra fine sugar
2 lg. eggs
2 very ripe bananas, fully mashed
3/4 c. bittersweet chocolate morsels (62% cacao)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray a 9x5x3″ loaf pan with cooking spray and line the bottom with parchment before spraying again.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together three times and set aside.

In another bowl, mix the buttermilk and goat cheese until well blended.

In the bowl of a standing mixer, cream the butter with the cinnamon using the paddle attachment.  Then, one tablespoon at a time, add the sugar very slowly with the motor running on high.  The sugar will blow around a bit, so be prepared…This takes about 8 minutes to do, so be patient. After all the sugar has been added, scrape down the sides.  The mixture will be very light in color and extremely fluffy.

Now add the eggs, one at a time, and mix well after each addition.  Scrape down the sides.

Starting with the flour mixture, add 1/3 and mix just until incorporated.  Then add 1/3 of the buttermilk mixture, and so on, mixing each time until just mixed.  Remove the bowl from the mixer and using a rubber spatula, fold in the bananas and the chocolate morsels.

Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake on a rack positioned in the center of the oven for about 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool on a baking rack for about 15 minutes, then remove from pan to cool completely at room temperature.


Notes: This recipe is adapted from Sherry Yard’s Banana Pound Cake in her Secrets of Baking.  I used a convection setting and tented the loaf with foil 30 minutes into the cooking time.  The cake rises very quickly, and browns deeply.  About half way through the baking time, I turned the oven down 5 degrees.

 

This is a delicious cake that would be just as lovely without the chocolate chips.  It cuts well, and is easily stored at room temperature if it lasts long enough.

 

This is the second pound cake I’ve made from this book and can say that the slow addition of the sugar really delivers a very lovely, airy cake.  I can’t wait to try it with berries…