Chocolate Chunk & Walnut Banana Sour Cream Coffee Cake

If You Like Banana Bread, Chocolate, And Walnuts, You Will Love This Cake! 

I combined a few of my favorite ingredients, and I came up with this recipe for coffee cake.  This delicious cake is a combination of banana bread, and sour cream coffee cake with the added bonus of having delectable chocolate chunks and walnuts in it.  You will not believe how gorgeous this cake is when it comes out of the oven! 

for the cake:

• 2 1/4 cups unbleached flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 extra large eggs, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3 medium ripe bananas
• 2/3 cup sour cream
• 1 1/4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

for the filling and topping:

• 1 (4 ounce) bar of bittersweet chocolate (I recommend
• Ghirardelli), chopped into small chunks
• 1 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
• 2 tablespoons melted and cooled unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter the sides and bottom (or tube if using a tube pan) of a 9 inch springform pan, or a 9 or 10 inch tube pan.  Measure the flour, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl, mix with fork and set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, place the chocolate chunks, the chopped walnuts, the 1/4 cup sugar, the cinnamon.  Then drizzle in the cooled, melted butter  and mix gently with a rubber spatula.  Set aside.  (If you notice that the butter is melting the chocolate a little, set the bowl aside in the refrigerator.)

In large bowl of electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter for 1 or 2 minutes.  Add the sugar, and cream until light colored and fluffy.  While the mixture is creaming, mash the bananas with a fork.  Add the eggs one at a time, and beat until fluffy.  Then blend in the bananas, the sour cream, and vanilla on low speed for no more than one minute.  With mixer on low, blend in the flour mixture and mix just until it is blended in. 

Spoon about half of the batter into your prepared pan.  Then sprinkle it with half of the chocolate-nut mixture.  Spoon the remaining batter over the filling, and spread it gently over with a rubber spatula.  Sprinkle the remaining half of chocolate-nut mixture evenly over the top of the batter.

Bake for 55 - 65 minutes.  The sides of the cake should have separated from the cake pan, and the center of the cake should not be sunken.  When the cake is cooked through, the center will have risen as much as the rest of the cake. If you are baking this cake in a round 9 inch springform pan, you may have to give it 5 or 10 minutes more of baking time. (A toothpick should also come out clean when the cake is fully baked.)  

Cool on wire rack, take off sides of pan, using a sharp knife, go under the cake to separate it from the bottom of the springform pan.  Then, slide the cake onto a serving platter.  Or, cut the cake into thirds, and slice a third into beautiful slices, and place on a cake platter.  Put each remaining third of the cake in a ziploc freezer bag, and freeze.     

Hints:  When you are making any cake batter, the time for the high speed is when you are creaming the butter with the sugar, and then with the eggs.  You want this mixture to be light and fluffy.  Your butter and eggs should always be at room temperature for best results.  Often, I decide to make a cake on the spur of the moment, and I don’t want to wait 1 or 2 hours for my butter and eggs to come to room temperature.  So I put my butter in the microwave on power level one for a minute at a time just until the butter feels softened, but is definitely not melting.  Then, I put the eggs in the microwave on power level 1 for about 1 minute.