Chocolate Banana Bread (with Walnuts)

This morning after coming home from work I was in the mood for baking. Craig (Claire's partner) passed his Driver's Theory test this morning, so I thought I'd make some Chocolate Brownies for him and because we had some bananas which need to be used up, I tried a new Banana loaf recipe.

 Chocolate Banana Bread

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250g    Self Raising Flour
A good pinch of Salt
150g    Castor Sugar
100g    Butter, melted and cooled
2          Medium Eggs, beaten
250g    Peeled ripe Bananas (2 large or 3 medium)
75g      Dark chocolate, chopped
100g    Walnut pieces

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A 900g loaf tin (about 26 x 12.5 x 7.l5 cm) greased with butter and the base lined with greaseproof paper

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Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4

Mix the flour with the salt and sugar in a mixing bowl. Add the melted, cooled butter and the beaten eggs. Roughly mash the bananas with a fork - there should still be some lumpy bits - and add to the bowl. Add the chocolate and walnut pieces and mix all the ingredients together with a wooden spoon until thoroughly combined.

Transfer the mixture to the prepared tin and spread evenly. Bake in the preheated oven for 55 minutes, until the loaf is a good golden brown and a cocktail stick inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Leave to cool for 5 minutes, then turn out on to a wire rack and leave to cool before slicing. Store in an airtight container.

Recipe from: The Great British Book of Baking (I can see there'll be a few more recipes for me to try from this book :)  )

As you can see in the first photo, I didn't wait for the loaf to cool before cutting the first slice - hence the smeared chocolate across the loaf ;o)
I put the flour, egg & banana into my free standing mixer and mixed that first then added everything else and mixed again. That seemed to work out fine.
The loaf was really easy to make but I did end up having to leave mine in the oven for an extra 10 minutes because it wasn't cooked through properly after the given time - you would just  have to do what's right for your oven.
I had mine with some butter on and it was really yummy! Hope you enjoy :o)
xx