Banana Bread with Peanut Butter and Chocolate

Goooooooooood afternoon!

I was originally going to post a different recipe for my first, but after coming back from a coffee morning (in which I had just eaten my body weight in coconut macaroons) I realised I had some very sad looking bananas on the kitchen counter, and the best thing to do with overripe bananas is make banana bread!

I've made banana bread since I was a child, and the best recipe I've ever used was the one in my Usborne Child Atlas of the World (sadly, I no longer have this book), but this is a preeeeeeeetty good substitute. It's a recipe I've adjusted from Simply Recipes. Banana bread is so good plain, but I happened to have chocolate drops and peanut butter in the cupboard, so why not experiment a little?

I'll put the ingredients up in grams, ounces and cups, because I use a lot of American recipes and it drives me CRAZY that I constantly have to check measurements, although as an FYI, Allrecipes have a page that shows conversions really clearly.

Ingredients

3 very ripe bananas, peeled

75g / 3 0z / 1/3 cup butter

150g / 5.5 oz / 3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking soda

190g / 6.5 oz / 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

4 tablespoons peanut butter

2 tablespoons milk

50g / 2 oz / 1/3 cup chocolate chips (I used dark chocolate for the slight bitterness)

Drizzle of oil (for oiling the bread tin - I used 2 teaspoons)

Equipment

• Bread tin
• Small bowl
• Measuring jug or scales
• Electric whisk
• Mixing bowl
• Fork (you can use a blender if you have one)
• Wooden spoon
• Metal spoon (A tablespoon if you can one, I used a dessert spoon)
• Pastry brush

If you don't have a pastry brush to hand, a bit of butter on kitchen towel will oil up a tin, and you really don't need an electric whisk, the wooden spoon will work just fine to mix everything

Method

• Preheat oven to 170C / 325F / Gas mark 3
• Oil the bread tin using the pastry brush. 
• Mash the bananas in the small bowl with the fork. If you have a blender, it'll mash the bananas in 10 seconds flat!

The smell of mashed bananas is soooooooo good!

• In the mixing bowl, whisk the butter and sugar together. Feel free to zap the butter in the microwave for a few seconds to soften it.

• Bung those bananas in!

• Whisk in the egg. It's going to look a bit gross, but that's ok!

• Add in the flour, 50g at a time, the baking powder and the vanilla essence. 

• Add in the peanut butter and milk. Once you've done this, mix everything for a minute or two.

• Fold in the chocolate chips with the wooden spoon.

• Pour the mixture into the pre-oiled tin. Bake in the middle of the oven for roughly an hour (check after 50 minutes. Mine took exactly 50 minutes, it depends on your oven.)

While the bread was in the oven, I did a quick experiment. I wanted to put banana chips on the top before it baked completely, but I thought I'd check how quickly they baked. On the bottom of the photo is unbaked banana chips, the top shows chips that were in the oven for five minutes! So it turns out they burn even quicker than I imagined, so instead of putting them on the bread I ate them while waiting for the loaf...

• Take the loaf out of the oven when it's a nice golden brown colour. If you have a metal skewer, you can check it's done all the way through by poking it into the middle of the bread (try and avoid the chocolate chips!), and if it comes out clean, you've successfully baked your Banana Bread!!  

• Let the tin cool, then run a sharp knife around the loaf. Take out the loaf and let cool on a wire rack.

Note: If you're going to take a picture of your new creation, remember to do that before you start eating it. Oops!

Ok, that's the first recipe on my blog!! Feel free to comment or share pictures of your bread. I hope you enjoy your Banana Bread with Peanut Butter and Chocolate!