Banana bread is one of my favourite things. For a while I bought bananas specifically so I could leave them to age so I would ‘have’ to make banana bread with them. This week I cut out the aging process and bought a bag of rather ripe bananas for the ridiculously small cost of 50p from our local greengrocer.
I have sung the praises of The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook before but I don’t think I’ve actually shared a recipe from this book yet. I am lazy so I have replaced the suggested chocolate icing with chunks (and rather large chunks at that) of dark chocolate.
These are, to echo the welsh, lush. There is the lovely moist banana and the chunks of chocolate which are always welcome. They are great with a cup of tea and I was craving them all day at work.
Ingredients (to make 12)
- 120g plain flour
- 140g caster sugar
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ginger
- pinch of salt
- 80g unsalted butter (room temperature if possible)
- 120ml milk (they advise whole milk but I use semi-skimmed or 2% as it’s called in the states and it’s fine)
- 2 eggs
- 120g peeled mashed banana (about two small bananas)
- 50g dark chocolate chopped into rough chunks
First of all preheat your oven to 170 degrees C (325 F or GM 3) and prepare your tin.
Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, salt and butter and combine until sandy. They recommend using a mixer with a paddle attachment or a handheld electric whisk. I used a wooden spoon and the microwave to save on washing up.
Slowly pour the milk in and beat well. Then do the same with the eggs. Then stir in the banana and chocolate chunks and try not to eat the mixture there and then.
Spoon into your 12 cases or silicone tray and bake for 20 minutes. We want them to be lightly golden and springy. Cool in the tray for a while before turning them out onto a cooling rack.
Devour with a cup of tea in your break and try to save some for your workmates. It’s only fair.
I love the hummingbird bakery book for cakes and pies but whenever I’ve made their muffin recipes they always tur out really dense and not very muffiny almost like little tea loafs. How were the denseness of yours?
They were really light, a bit heavier than a normal cupcake because of the squidgy banana bits but not much more. I wonder if it’s to do with getting air into the mixture while the ingredients are being combined?
Yeah, I’ve been using silicon muffin baking trays and I wondered if it was the difference it the way the heat spreads through? Did you use silicon or standard tins?