red velvet banana nut bread

Merry Christmas Eve!

Eleanor and I are currently in the middle of a long Hallmark movie marathon that has lasted for over a month. I started counting how many movies the other day and I can decide if I'm embarrassed or proud at the number. In my defense, I was on vacation for two weeks and I've pretty much stopped watching any other tv. Hallmark movies or bust.

So each Christmas I try to make a new Christmas-y recipe and I guess this is the one for the year. Although in hindsight the only thing that makes it Christmas-y is that it is red. (Prior Christmas recipes? madelinespancakes & stout bread). I'm not quite sure how I stumbled on this recipe but I figured it was worth a shot. Nobody hates banana bread and if they do, they probably have a good reason.

While I have nothing against using pre-made mixes, I didn't feel like going to the store to make this work. So I did have to cobble this recipe together a bit. Funnily enough there weren't that many other sources for "red velvet banana nut bread". My thought process was to determine what makes something "red velvet" and then just add that to a banana bread recipe. 
  • Red Velvet = buttermilk + cocoa powder + red coloring
  • Banana Bread = bananas + sugar + flour

A few other things about this recipe...
  • SUGAR // One of the only alterations I made to the banana bread recipe was to swap out brown sugar for white as a way of not diminishing the "red" effect. Brown sugar is a bit sweeter due to molasses so this recipe doesn't have that traditional sweetness you might associate with banana bread. Also, I just used butter instead of buttermilk. 
  • BANANAS // I left my bananas a little chunky in the batter and I really like how they came out in the end. You can see some of them peeking through the top and sides of the loaves.
  • SOUR CREAM // Next time I make this, I might try to add in some sour cream as a way of making this a little more breakfast-y. As is, it is absolutely more of a "cake" as opposed to a "breakfast cake". 

So here's how it goes.
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease your pan(s) of choice.
  2. In a large bowl, cream together butter, sugar and eggs. Then add in the food coloring and mashed bananas until well blended. I left it a tiny bit clumpy because why not. 
  3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder. Combine the banana mixture and the flour mixture. Mix until blended. It'll never be smooth like a cake or muffin mixture so don't worry about it. Pour batter into prepared loaf pans. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top before baking.
  4. Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. The timeframe is really dependent on your pan sizes. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.
  5. After the loaves have cooled, drizzle melted white chocolate on top and sprinkle with sugar.
Shopping List2 cups of flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
2 tbsp cocoa powder
3 tbsp red food coloring
1/3 cup chocolate chips
2/3 cup white chocolate chips

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