Why yes, the second recipe that I am choosing to share with you also happens to contain chocolate chips. This might well lead you to believe that I quite enjoy chocolate, and, you would be right. In fact, I whole heartedly believe that desserts containing chocolate are superior to all other desserts and I am willing to fight for that belief.
On our first date, my fiancé Dom told me that if he was king for the day he would decree that only puddings containing chocolate could henceforth be considered valid puddings, all other forms of dessert would be demoted. A.) clearly we had excellent first date conversations, and B.) It was at this specific moment that I knew I had found a keeper. Similarly, one of the first conversations we had when we started planning our wedding was our wedding cake, which we both agreed must be 100% chocolate. No fruitcake layer for us. So, in summary, this household loves chocolate. It doesn’t mean we don’t also have space for other delicious food, but there will likely be a LOT of chocolate on my blog.
You’ve been warned.
So, let’s talk more about banana bread. This recipe is one of my favourites that we come back to time and time again. It’s such an easy recipe to throw together, it’s really forgiving, the banana bread is freezable (do this in individual slices, make sure you wrap them well!) and it lasts for several days in a sealed container.
I love having banana bread ready to go, it’s sweet enough to be a nice afternoon treat with a cup of tea, but it also feeds healthy enough to have for breakfast if I feel so inclined (and, I often do feel inclined). Banana bread is also great comfort food and a brilliant way to use up a whole bunch of brown bananas. So, if you like comfort and dislike food waste, this recipe is a good one for you.
Some small tips and ideas:
I find the best way to quickly mash the bananas is to put them in a food processor or mixer, either works. It’s also totally possible to mash them by hand, I just like to make baking super easy for myself (some might call it lazy, I call it efficiency).
It’s always really helpful to have your ingredients measured out and prepared to go before you start. I like to make sure I do this because I’ve definitely forgotten to add one thing or another in the past and it’s been heartbreaking!
My personal recommendation is that you rewarm the slices before you eat them, because it gives the banana bread that “fresh out of the oven” feel and makes the chocolate chips all gooey and delicious.
You can also use this recipe to make muffins if you would prefer that (it makes them more easily transportable). Just pour the prepared batter into muffin cases in a muffin baking tray, and bake for 22-24 minutes!
You can make this recipe with normal flour if you don’t need to follow a gluten free diet :)
If chocolate isn't your thing (I mean, I'll never understand it but you do you) then you can always substitute the chocolate chips in this recipe for nuts like walnuts or pecans. Alternatively, you can leave out the additions all together and just have pure banana bread!
Jen’s super moist chocolate chip banana bread
15 mins prep
1 hour baking
Ingredients
2 cups gluten free plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs (room temperature)
2 cups mashed bananas (about 4 very big bananas)
1/2 cup butter (room temperature)
1/3 cup plain yoghurt (I use coconut yoghurt for this, but normal yoghurt works fine too)
Pinch of salt
1tsp madagascan vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips (plus some more to sprinkle on the top if you’d like)
Method
1.) Preheat your fan oven to 150°C (325°F for my American friends out there) and prepare your ingredients. Grease a large loaf tin ready for your batter.
2.) Mix together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, pinch of salt and cinnamon in a bowl.
3.) In a bowl or a free standing mixer, first add the butter and the brown sugar together and beat it well for a few minutes until it is smooth and creamy.
4.) Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
5.) Add the yoghurt, the vanilla extract and the mashed bananas and mix again until the ingredients are combined.
6.) Slowly add in the dry ingredients (the flour mixture) one spoonful at a time to the wet ingredients, making sure they are all combined and there are no flour pockets left. Don’t over mix the batter though!
7.) Add the chocolate chips and gently stir them in, then pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin. Sprinkle some more chocolate chips on top if you would like!
8.) Put the loaf tin in the centre of the oven for an hour or until a skewer comes out clean (that’s how you test to see if a cake is cooked - if the skewer comes out with cake batter on it, leave it a little longer). After about 30 minutes, cover the loaf with some foil so that it doesn’t get too brown or start to burn on top.
9.) Wait for the banana bread to cool a while before turning it out of the tin onto a cooling rack. When it’s cool enough, dig in!
Remember to store it in an airtight container so it doesn’t dry out. Happy eating!
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