Tuesdays With Dorie: Cocoa-Nana Bread

I was pretty excited about this bread: Chocolate is almost always good (as long as it’s not cheesecake!), and I can live with bananas in bread. I actually have a pretty amazing banana bread/cake recipe from the inestimable David Lebovitz, which is healthy enough when made with whole-wheat flour and walnuts that I don’t feel guilty serving it for breakfast. But I tried Dorie’s Classic Banana Bundt Cake last summer, because I try to be open-minded (especially when it comes to baking). And I tried this.

The batter was good, really good. I ate a lot of it.

But I wound up baking this for 90 minutes before the center was even vaguely done, and that dried out the edges too much. I don’t know if it’s my oven or just me, but sometimes the suggested baking times are spot on, and sometimes they’re mere fantasy.

I made this bread to take along on our annual New’s Year’s visit to friends in Virginia. We had it for breakfast on New Year’s Day, and the three-year-old daughter of the house, who had been champing at the bit to get a piece, pronounced it “not very tasty.”

Other people liked it a little more, but no one was really impressed with it. The edges were dry and the interior was very moist, even dense. The cocoa flavor was very strong, and even the dark chocolate lovers thought it was too much. At the same time, there wasn’t a whole lot of flavor, odd as that seems.

Go see if the other TWD bakers had more luck with this, and if you want to try it yourself, buy the book (Baking: From My Home to Yours) or visit Steph of Obsessed with Baking.