Banana Chocolate Chip Bread for Two

 There is something really comforting about a good banana bread. I have baked many through the years and have my favourites.  Family Favourite Banana Bread and Rich Banana Bread are two of my absolute favourites. 

The family favourite recipe is one I baked for my family for many years. It is moist and delicious.  The rich banana bread recipe is the banana bread I used to bake for the Mr when I worked at the manor down south. He had to have a loaf of it baked for him every week! It is also moist and delicious.

 Big Banana breads just are not practical in this house these days. I know I could freeze them but for me something is lost in the flavour when something is frozen. Maybe it is just in my head, I don't know for sure.

This recipe for Banana Chocolate Chip Bread for Two solves that problem. It makes one small Banana Bread, 5 1/2 by 3 inches in size. It is perfectly sized for the smaller family.

 

Alternately you could probably bake this Banana Bread in two medium to large muffin cups.  I am not quite sure how long they would take as banana bread is a bit denser than muffins.

I am thinking you should check them at 20 to 25 minutes however. This would be about right in my opinion.

 This loaf may be small in stature, but it is big on flavour. It lacks nothing in the least of its much larger counterpart!

It is rich, moist, and delicious. There is only a tiny bit of fat in the form of 1 TBS of unsalted butter, melted. This is great because you end up with a bread that is not oily or greasy in the least.  Too many banana breads can end up this way.  Blech!

 It uses one small banana, about 1/4 cup of mashed banana. This means that there is plenty of banana flavour in this loaf.  

The abundance of natural sugars in bananas are the secret to a  moist and delicious Banana Bread. Make sure your bananas are nice and ripe before you use them in a banana bread.

 Ideally they should be starting to soften. The skin should be well spotted with brown flecks of colour. The more brown flecks the better! 

I have used bananas to make banana bread that most people would throw away. I am talking just about black in colour skin-wise.  They make the best banana breads.

 They mash beautifully and are the sweetest! Seriously!  I am a person who hates chunks of banana in my banana bread.

I want a smooth texture without lumps of banana. I do like toasted nuts in it, but no banana lumps! I am funny that way.

 If you use yellow  not-so-ripe bananas they just won't work right. They just don't have the sweetness and flavour of their over-ripe counterparts! 

They can even remain quite starchy after baking!  This is a big No No! There are a lot of theories out there about how to ripen bananas.

One of the best ways it to place them into a paper bag and shut it up, leaving them in there for a few days. This is the most effective method.

It does the job best. The bag traps the ethyene gas produced by ripening fruit. This in turn helps to speed up the process from the normal time of just leaving them on the counter-top. You will find you only need a day or two!

 I like toasted walnuts in my banana bread.  Banana and walnuts just are perfect partners. You could also use pecans. The Mr down south liked toasted pecans over walnuts.

I like both, but prefer the walnuts. I get that from my dad. He  is nuts about walnuts as well!  And of course as I tell you frequently, toasting your nuts just makes them nuttier!

 

Lately I have been reading a lot about which nuts we should be eating and which ones we should be eating sparingly, if not avoiding! There are two which you should really eat sparingly and you are probably going to be upset when you find out what they are! 

Cashews and Peanuts. They are the nuts which are the higest in lectins and lectins are not very good for us. Our bodies have a hard time breaking them down and they can cause  a lot of tummy distress.

I have diverticulitis and gastritis and so gut health is really important to me. I've been doing a lot of research into it lately and lectins are a likely culprit.

The best nuts are walnuts, pistachios, pecans and macadamia nuts.  Not a problem, I love all of those.  Almonds are also good.

I guess that means I will have to cut back on my peanut butter and toast supper.  Most nights that is what I have for my supper.  A slice of toast spread with peanut butter.  

Not a good thing in the long run I guess. Bad news for me who always has said that if I was marooned on a desert island I would want a jar of peanut butter and potatoes with me. Ho hum  . . .

 

In any case I do love walnuts and they are wonderful in this moist and delicious loaf!  They add a beautiful hint of toasted nutty crunchiness! 

You can leave the chocolate out if you wish. I use Green & Blacks dark milk chocolate, but you can use chocolate chips, or even dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate.

The choice is yours completely!

Yield: Serves 2

Author: Marie Rayner

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Banana Chocolate Chip Bread for Two

This is a simple, moist and tender banana loaf that tastes like bananas. It is studded with toasted walnuts and good quality chopped milk chocolate. You will need a 5 1/2 by 3 inch loaf tin for this delight. You could also bake it in two muffin cups.

prep time: 10 Mincook time: 40 Mininactive time: 1 Hourtotal time: 1 H & 50 M

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (70g) all purpose/plain flour
• 1/4 cup (30g) toasted and chopped walnuts
• 2 TBS good quality dark milk chocolate, grated or cut into chunks (I use Green & Black's)
  
• 1/4 cup (50g) sugar
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 small ripe banana, peeled and mashed really well (about 1/4 cup)
• 1 large free range egg, at room temperature
• 1 TBS unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1 TBS plain yogurt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180*C.350*F/ gas mark 4.  Butter a 5 1/2 by 3 inch loaf tin and line with baking paper.
2. Whisk the flour, chocolate, walnuts, sugar, soda and salt together in a medium bowl. 
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the melted and cooled butter, bananas, egg, yogurt and vanilla.
4. Gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry just to combine.  Do not overmix.  Spoon into the prepared pan, smoothing the top.
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes until the loaf is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
6. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes before lifting out from the pan to cool completely. Leave to cool for one hour before slicing to serve.

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 I really hope that you will want to bake this Banana bread if you are in a small family, and if you are not, maybe you will enjoy one of the larger loaves that I have linked up to here.  Also, if I was to small size another kind of quick bread, what would be your choice of smaller sized recipes you might like to see?  I aim to please! 

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