Banana bread is a great way to use up overripe bananas, in fact, the darker the skins, the better! This recipe adds Fairtrade Brazil nuts for a delicious nutty crunch and Divine’s 70% Dark Chocolate for nuggets of chocolate pleasure.
By Pauline Milligan
Chocolate Chip and Brazil Nut Banana Bread
Prep Time: 20 minutes + cooling
Serves: People
Ingredients
150g plain flour
150g wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp salt
90g Divine 70% Dark Chocolate, broken into pieces and roughly chopped
60g Fairtrade Brazil nuts, roughly chopped
125g unsa150g Fairtrade caster sugarlted butter, very soft, plus a little extra for greasing
2 large eggs
100ml buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
4 medium overripe Fairtrade bananas, mashed almost to a puree
Method
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 180 C/350 F/Gas Mark 4 and grease a loaf tin with a little butter.
Step 2
Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a large mixing bowl. Add the chocolate and Brazil nuts and briefly mix together until evenly distributed and coated in flour.
Step 3
In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar with a hand whisk or food mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, followed by the buttermilk, vanilla and almond extracts and finally the mashed bananas.
Step 4
Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet mixture. Using a large spoon, mix everything together until just combined.
Step 5
Pour the mixture into the greased loaf tin and cook in the preheated oven for 60-70 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the middle.
Step 6
Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 5-10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
