I baked another fabulous recipe from Rachel Allen’s new book Bake (yep another Bake recipe but I love this book and no point in buying books if you’re not going to use them, right?). In our home bananas are eaten within a few days of me buying them or left to go ripe and like I’ve said before I hate food going to waste. And any excuse to bake is also another plus for me and my boys. I love baking banana breads and trying out new recipes, you can never try enough! This moist bread, packed with ripe bananas and chocolate chips has the additional ingredient of orange zest which adds a decadent touch to this delicious bread. My boys love banana bread at any time of the day but it’s great for breakfast with a glass of milk when time isn’t on your side.
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.
Ollie is getting on great and is such a happy kitten, he has adjusted very quickly and we’ve had a lot of progress with at least one of our cats, Madison, his no longer hissing at him and they are friends!!! This morning I walked into our conservatory to find Madison and Ollie both together in a box they have which they love to play and sleep in and it made me teary but in a happy and good way as I knew this was the moment that told me that they are buddies now. Coco our other cat, she is not being easy on Ollie and is hissing and growling but at least she can be in the same room as him now and not hiding upstairs in my son’s loft bedroom as she was in the first few days. So hopefully we will get there but I’m very proud of my Madison, I knew he wouldn’t let me down and it’s so great to see him with Ollie.
The captured moment of Ollie in the box with Madison ;o)
16 comments:
I made my first Bake recipe today - will post later in week!! This banana bread looks fantastic. Interesting that she puts orange in it.
At home I have to hide bananas so they get ripe, otherwise we never give them time and can't make banana bread, which I love!!!! I never tried to put chocolate chips... I 'll use them next time!!!
And Madison, what a good cat he is!!! I am so pleased to hear that he is getting on with Ollie....
Saluditos. B
Your bread looks so good! I wish I could have a slice now. I need an afternoon pick me up! Such cute kitties!
Maria that banana cake looks delicous :) It sounds like Ollie is settling in really well, that's so lovely. Gorgeous pictures :)
The bread looks delicious! I am loving the Bake book and thinking I should invest in it too! The kitties are so cute. It's good to hear their getting along well. I think Coco will come around eventually and they will all be buddies!
My kids will want to come and have breakfast with your family Maria!
Your cats look so lovely together - gosh the big and the small of it:)
Wow, that bread looks amazing! Kitty is so sweet. It must be fun to have her around the house.
Lea x
Banana AND chocolate bread? Could a bread possibly be nicer? Or more wicked? ;-)
And as for Ollie the kitten - just too cute...
*sighs*
My goodness that picture of Ollie and Madison should be up for an award for cutest photo ever!! My cat never did reappear :( but it's lovely to see that there are still happy little kittys in the world.
The banana bread looks amazing, I'm going shopping tonight so might have to invest in a loaf tin so I can make some!
I watched Rachel Allen last night on her new programme Baked and really enjoyed it. This banana bread looks a great recipe to try out and doesn't it look delsih :)
Ahhhh great news that little Ollie is getting on with the "King" I'm sure it won’t belong before Coco comes around too :)
Rosie x
We too love banana bread. I must try this yummy recipe.
Thanks everyone for the lovely comments ;o)
Rosie I missed the first episode but managed to watch the second episode last night! I really enjoyed it and it's great seeing her bake some of the recipes from the book ;o)
Maria
x
I love choc and banana bread is so naughtily moreish though!!
So jealous of your kitties they are beyond cute! that last picture with the two of them just melts my heart!
What a cutie!
Oh, here he is, one adorable Ollie! And that is a cute pic of him and MAdison, ohh...:) Cream is my favourite colour in brits (on four legs), I hope to one day be able to work my breeding way back to that colour. Thanks for stopping by my blog - just what I needed, one more blog with delicious cakes to drool over...;)
I love this recipe,iv been using it for years. If you want to put a bit of a twist on it chop up 1 or 2 dime bars and put them in with the chocolate, as the cake cooks the dime bars sink to the bottom creating a yummy chewy crust...delicious! Another tip is to put in a few rolo's (the chocolate caramel sweets)they leave lovely gooey pools of caramel throughout the cake-not very good for the figure but definately worth it!
Post a Comment