Saturday, January 31, 2009

Banana and Chocolate Bread.

The challenge for this month on Sweet and Simple Bakes is this lovely Banana Chocolate Bread. Banana bread always goes down well in this house and is a great and welcome addition to lunch boxes. I usually use a recipe of Delia's but it was lovely to try a new one. We loved the hint of lemon from the lemon rind (I didn't have a spare orange!) and who could possibly complain about chocolate chips?
Banana and Chocolate Bread
Serves 10-12
Ingredients
250g (9oz) self-raising flour
Pinch of salt
1 tsp baking powder
150g (5oz) caster sugar
100g (3 ½ oz) butter, softened
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
Finely grated zest of 1 orange
475g (17oz) whole bananas (about 4 small ones), peeled
75g (3oz) dark chocolate chips
13 x 23cm (5x9in) loaf tin
Preheat the oven to 170oC (325oF), Gas mark 3. Lightly butter and line the loaf tin with parchment paper. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into a large bowl. Add the sugar and butter and, using your fingertips, rub it in until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Whisk the eggs, vanilla extract and orange zest in another bowl. Add the bananas and mash very well with a potato masher. Add the chocolate chips. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the banana mixture. Gently but thoroughly bring all the ingredients together with a wooden spoon, then pour into the prepared loaf tin. Smooth the top and bake in the oven for 1-1 ¼ hours or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before removing the cake from the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack.
Please click on the link on the right and look at the Chocolate and Banana Breads worldwide and if it looks like good fun to you then join in with the next challenge!

10 comments:

Oh my! Apple pie! said...

I love banana and chocolate, perfect. It looks really tasty.

natalia said...

It looks very good !!!

Coby said...

Jilly, I've never added chocolate to my Banana Breads, and I see your blog and wonder why haven't I done this? That looks SO GREAT!

Maria♥ said...

Jilly, your banana and chocolate bread turned out beautiful and delish! Definitely try it with orange next time ;o)

Thanks for taking part and hope you will join us again.

Maria
x

Rosie said...

Jilly, your banana and chocolate bread looks wonderful and I really like the idea of the added orange flavour -yum!

Thanks for taking part and hope you will join us again.

Rosie x

Anonymous said...

Jilly that looks lovely. Great to have you back blogging too :)

hungryandfrozen said...

This looks delish. I like the sound of the orange rind in the mix. I find it hard to make anything other than Nigella's banana bread from HTBADG but I wonder if the two recipes are even that different? Anyway, this looks great! Could definitely go for a slice :)

Kelly-Jane said...

It looks lovely, I don't think I've tried chocolate in banana bread before - must!

www.crabbycook.com said...

Jilly,

Bananas & Chocolate? Really the only thing missing form this recipe is a dollop of ice cream. Looks good!

On another note, my Australian geography is awful, so please indulge my ignorance, but are you near any of the danger areas from the fires and floods I've been reading about?

Stay safe.

JillyB said...

George, thanks for stopping by! It's nice to be blogging again after the run of visitors. next ones are due in October so I've plenty of time!
Laura, do try the bread. I've always stuck to Delia's but I'm so glad I tried this as the citrus zest gives it a lovely touch.
Crabby! Nice to see you over here. I hadn't thought of ice-cream but having had a slice of the bread straight from the oven I know that a good dollop of vanilla would be fantastic. Thanks for the idea! Geographically, we're north of the devastating bushfires and over to the east. We've had a few around us but nothing to compare with whats been shown round the world. We're also south of the floods too so we count ourselves very lucky. Thanks for asking.