18 July 2014

Chocolate Banana Bread

Good evening!

This morning I spotted in our fruit bowl three bananas which looked like today was their last day... So I decided to put them to good use and whip up some banana bread!

I've tried quite a few banana bread recipes over time, but the best one I think is from The Great British Book of Baking. (Yes, it's a Great British Bake Off one, of course!) The resulting loaf is moist but not sloppy; chocolately and delicious.

The following quantities make 1 medium loaf.

Ingredients -
250g self-raising flour
A good pinch of salt
150g caster sugar
100g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 medium free-range eggs, beaten
250g peeled ripe bananas - eg. 2 large/3 medium
75g dark chocolate, chopped (I just broke mine into big chunks; I quite like getting a big chocolatey hit!)
100g walnut pieces (I didn't use walnuts in my loaf today as there weren't any in the cupboard, but they taste great in the bread if you can get some)

Equipment -
900g loaf tin, greased with butter, with the base lined with grease proof paper
Mixing bowl
Wooden spoon

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.

2. Mix the flour with the salt and sugar in your mixing bowl. Add the melted, cooled butter and the beaten eggs.

3. Roughly mash the bananas with a fork (quite satisfying!) and add to the bowl. There should still be some lumpy bits.

4. Add the chocolate and walnut pieces and mix all the ingredients together with a wooden spoon until thoroughly combined.

5. Transfer the mixture to the prepared tin and spread evenly. Bake in the preheated oven for 55 minutes, until the loaf is a good golden brown and a cake testing rod inserted into the centre comes out clean.

6. Leave to cool for 5 minutes, then turn out to a wire rack and leave to cool before slicing. Store in an airtight container.