Marbled Banana Loaf
When the coronavirus pandemic led to the first lockdown in the U.K., a lot of baking enthusiast stocked up on flour to make sourdough starters, and used overripe bananas to make banana bread. I did hop onto the sourdough starter craze (but failed miserably after my sister "‘accidentally’ threw my sourdough starter in the bin, having mistaken it for something else.) I never bothered to try again since. Anyway, after 7 months, I finally decided to attempt making banana bread. The results surprised me, a novice banana bread baker, and I’m super excited to share my tweaked recipe with you all!
Recipe Serves: The whole village
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Baking time: 1 hour
INGREDIENTS
100g butter, softened
85g caster sugar
225g self-raising flour
2 large eggs
2 ripe bananas, thoroughly mashed
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp full fat milk
85g milk chocolate
2 tsp cocoa powder
METHOD
To bake this, you will need a 17 x 9 x 9cm loaf tin, parchment paper, a wooden spoon and/or baking spatula, and an electric mixer.
Lightly grease the loaf tin with some butter, and line it with baking parchment paper. Make sure you cut the paper in excess so you can use the excess bits to lift the cake once done.
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4.
Add all ingredients (except chocolate and cocoa powder) to a mixing bowl and beat for about two minutes using an electric mixer, until well blended. You can also beat by hand with a wooden spoon if you don’t have an electric mixer.
Place your chocolate in a medium sized microwave-safe bowl and heat it up in 30 second intervals, stirring at the end of each interval, until almost fully melted. Keep stirring until smooth, allowing the residual heat to melt the rest of the chocolate. Add the 2 tsp cocoa powder and stir until smooth. Add 6 tablespoonfuls of the banana bread batter to the melted chocolate and stir until well combined.
Spoon the plain batter and chocolate batter alternately into the prepared tin until it looks something like the image below.
Using a table knife, create swirls by going up and down 4 to 5 times. Don’t overdo it. See image below for guidance.
Bake on the shelf below the middle shelf for one hour, until well risen and golden brown.
Insert a fine skewer in the centre of the cake to check that it’s well baked. The skewer should come out clean.
Leave the cake to cool in the tin for about 5 minutes, then lift the excess parchment paper to take the cake out of the tin. Move the cake off the parchment paper and place it on a wire rack to cool completely. This took me about an hour by the window seal where cool air was coming in. Once completely cool, serve in thick slices and enjoy with a nice cuppa tea!
Bon Appetit, and if you’ve tried making this loaf, let me know how it went for you!