Marbled Chocolate Banana Bread

Generally, I tend to buy too many bananas and they end up getting too ripe for me to eat.  But this is never a bad thing because you can always make banana bread.  Add chocolate, nuts or fruit to spice up this American classic comfort food.

Marble Chocolate Banana Bread

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup mashed bananas (2-3 ripe bananas)
• 4 oz of melted dark or semisweet chocolate

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  

2.  Combine all the dry ingredients together and set aside.

3.  In separate bowl/mixer, cream the butter and sugar together.  Add the eggs and scrape the bowl, then add the vanilla and mix.

4.  Add the bananas the bowl.  Alternatively, add the flour and the sour cream.  Scrape between each addition.

5.  Divide half of the batter into another bowl.  Melt the chocolate in a small bowl.  You can use a double boiler or microwave, check every ten seconds and stir.  When completely melted, add to half of the batter.

6.  Spray the bread pans.  Create four layers of batter, starting with the plain batter, then chocolate, plain and chocolate.  Use a pointy tool like a butter knife or palette knife to marble the batter together.

7.  Bake for 40 minutes to an hour depending on what size baking pan you use.  Use a toothpick to judge how much time your bread needs.  If it comes out clean, it is done.

Things to take in consideration:

• Bananas -  The best bananas to use are the ones with the dark peel.  If you notice that your bananas are going bad, simply put them in the refrigerator and they will last longer in there, but you will need to use them in the next couple days.  In the refrigerator, they will become black, just check the bananas before you use them.
• Chocolate -  When choosing your chocolate, it can be chocolate chips, baking chips or bars of candy.  As long as the chocolate has a high percentage of cocoa in it, idealy use semisweet, bittersweet or dark chocolate.  If you can't get enough chocolate, you can always add more chocolate or white chocolate chips to your bread.
• Nuts -  You can always add nuts to your baking.  Walnuts, pecans or almonds are good with banana bread.  
• Wanna make it better?  -  If you want to give the bread more pop, add a streusel or crumb on top.   Guaranteed to be eaten!

Jalapeno Poppers

When I was selecting items for my Full Circle box, I found they had jalapeno peppers as a selection.  I decided to order a half a pound and I was excited for the idea of making jalapeno poppers!  Considering my preference strays away from spicy foods, I found that cream cheese would be a nice balance with the spicy.  These are great for parties or social gatherings!

Jalapeno Poppers

• 1/2 pound jalapeno peppers
• 1 package cream cheese
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
• vegetable oil for frying

1.  Cut off the tops of the jalapenos and split them in half the long way.  Deseed them and when they are empty, fill them with cream cheese.

2.  Put the milk, flour and breadcrumbs in two separate small bowls.  Dip the filled jalapenos in milk and then roll in the flour.  Set side to dry for 10 minutes.

3.  Dip the floured jalapenos in the milk once more and roll in the breadcrumbs.  If you run out of milk, flour or breadcrumbs, add more to the bowls but only what you need.  Allow them to dry for 10 minutes.

4.  Pour vegetable into a pot, you will only need like a 1/2 to 1 inch of oil.  Just enough to cover the jalapenos.  Heat the oil in a pot on medium and adjust heat when you are frying to get a steady fry on your poppers.  The key is to make sure they don't cook too fast and you want them to fry for enough time that the peppers become softer and golden brown in color.

5.  When done frying, place the poppers on a paper towel to absorb the excess oil.  Careful eating right away, they're hot!

Variations:

• Filling -  In the cream cheese filling, you can add other ingredients like cheddar, parmesan, bacon, or other seasonings.