Banana Bread with Chocolate and Crystallised Ginger

By Rachel Davies

I seem to be on a roll with the crystallised ginger. My Ginger Crunch recipe has got great feedback from lots of happy bakers (and eaters), so I thought I’d continue. Plus I’ve still got more ginger to get through.

As I type, I’m also eating the first slice of a just-out-of-the-oven banana bread with chocolate chip and crystallised ginger. It’s not easy to write and eat. Efficient typing requires two hands, and I need one to bring the slice towards my mouth. By the time I’ve chewed and typed a few words, my hand is needed to pass the food again.  You see the issue.

My brown bananas have been sitting out for a few days, and I’d earmarked them for this recipe. It’s from ‘A Homemade Life’ by Molly Wizenberg, author of the blog Orangette. The book is a delicious and beautifully described autobiography with recipes, and reading it has been a kind of affirmation, that someone is as loopy about making and eating food as me. I’ve also been left with plenty of recipes lined up to try.

This loaf is good with really ripe bananas, and is very tasty too. It’s a not-too-sweet, adult banana bread; indulgent, but not over the top, and very simple to make. Just make sure those bananas get good and brown! As ever, you can’t go wrong with an afternoon reviver of a nice cup of tea and a slice of this moist loaf.

Banana Bread with Chocolate and Crystallized Ginger

Adapted from ‘A Homemade Life’ by Molly Wizenberg

Ingredients

85g unsalted butter

250g plain flour

170g caster sugar

¾ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

100g dark chocolate, cut up into small pieces

60g crystallised ginger, finely chopped

2 large eggs

3 large ripe bananas, mashed

80g whole-milk plain yoghurt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

Preheat the oven to 170°C and grease a 2lb loaf tin (dimensions approximately 23cm x 13cm).

Melt the butter in a small saucepan, and take off the heat to cool slightly.

Weigh the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, chocolate and ginger together in a large bowl, and mix well.

In a separate bowl, mix the eggs, banana, yoghurt, vanilla extract and melted butter together with a fork.

Using a spatula, stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, scraping the sides down and incorporating all the dry ingredients without over-mixing.

Pour the batter into the loaf tin, and bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until a skewer comes out clean from the middle of the loaf. If the top browns too quickly, loosely cover with foil and continue baking.

When the loaf is ready, leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack and allow to cool before slicing.