Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Banana bread is one of my all time favourites! But growing up not as much. It was always dry and crumbly. It definitely needed work! But I've finally figured out how to make the best, moist, slightly chewy, banana bread that stays fresh for days. And being the chocolate enthusiast that I am, it of course had to have chocolate chips in it!

First things first is the bananas. They need to be really ripe. Like almost completely brown! The importance of this is that the banana becomes softer and sweeter. The last thing you want in a banana bread is a hard banana. It's harder to mash and doesn't have that sweet taste that banana bread should have. I kept my bananas in the fridge, which did take them longer to ripen enough, but also stopped the fruit flies getting to it!! Ew!

The second point is all about the sugar. I decided to go for a combination of soft light brown sugar and caster sugar. The soft light brown sugar adds a slight chew to the banana bread and helps to keep it moist rather than dry and crumbly. And the reason I went for caster sugar instead of granulated is just because the caster sugar is ground down more than granulated. This helps it to absorb more in the creaming process which makes for a smoother batter.

I used 2 large free range eggs in this recipe, which might seem like a lot, but gives it a moister texture along side the mashed up bananas.

Now onto the flour, this recipe called for self raising flour, which means no rising agent is needed. Originally, I used 200g of the flour but as I was folding it into the mixture realised I needed a little more. The mixture was still looking a bit too runny. It's always trial and error when creating new recipes but it ended up being the perfect amount!

You want to bake this low and slow. Because it's so big, you don't want the top to cook quicker than the middle because then you end up with a burnt top and a raw middle. I baked mine on 150C for between 40 minutes to an hour. After the 40 minute mark, I would just check it and then set the timer for an extra 10 minutes at a time. You don't want the middle to be shaking when you take it out. When a toothpick comes out clean (not including the melted chocolate) it's done. And it should be lovely and golden on the top.

So without further ado, here's the recipe! I hope you enjoy making it and let me know what you think!

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Ingredients

200g butter

100g soft light brown sugar

100g caster sugar

3 ripe bananas

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

230g self raising flour

250g milk chocolate chips plus extra for the top

1 tbsp whole milk

Method

1. Preheat oven to 150C and grease your loaf tin.

2. Cream the butter and sugar together. In a separate bowl mash up the bananas. Add the bananas to the creamed butter and mix until well incorporated.

3. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until well combined.

4. Next, sift the flour and fold into the mixture until almost all the flour is gone. Add the chocolate chips and mix until combined.

5. Add 1 tbsp of milk and mix until combined. The mixture shouldn’t be too thick or too runny.

6. Pour the mixture into your prepared loaf tin and spread it out evenly with a mini cranked palette knife. Place in the centre of your oven. Bake for 40-60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean.

7. Leave to cool completely in the pan before removing it.

8. Slice up and enjoy! This can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

9. Pro tip: If you like your chocolate chips melty, heat a slice in the microwave for 10-20 seconds and enjoy warm :)

Tips

• When creaming the butter and sugar mix it together until light and fluffy in colour. Ijn a stand mixer this will be for 1-2 minutes, by hand for with an electric hand whisk it will be longer.

• Don't overmix the batter after the eggs and flour are added. At this point you only want to mix until combined. We don't want to add any air to the mixture at this point. If using an electric hand whisk I would recommend swapping to a spatula to fold in the flour rather than whisking it.

• Store in an airtight container to ensure it stays fresh for 3-4 days.