Banana loaf with fruit, nuts, chocolate & espresso butter

Name: Banana loaf with fruit, nuts, chocolate & espresso butter
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 55 min
Yield: 10
Ingredients: 100 ml vegetable oil, plus a little extra for greasing; 3 medium, ripe bananas; 100 g light brown soft sugar; 225 g plain flour; 4 tsp baking powder; 1½ tsp ground cinnamon; 1½ tsp ground ginger; 50 g raisins or sultanas; 50 g walnuts (or pecans or mixed nuts), roughly chopped; 100 g chocolate (any type), roughly chopped (I tested with 50g Cadbury Caramel Nibbles)

Elly Curshen's banana loaf is not too sweet, so it can cope with the addition of whatever Easter chocolate you have to hand.

5 out of 5 stars(3) Rate this recipe

Vegetarian

Serves10
CourseCake
Prepare10 mins
Cook45 mins
Total time55 mins
Pluscooling

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Ingredients

100ml vegetable oil, plus a little extra for greasing
3 medium, ripe bananas
100g light brown soft sugar
225g plain flour
4 tsp baking powder
1½ tsp ground cinnamon
1½ tsp ground ginger
50g raisins or sultanas
50g walnuts (or pecans or mixed nuts), roughly chopped
100g chocolate (any type), roughly chopped (I tested with 50g Cadbury Caramel Nibbles)

For the espresso butter

1 tsp espresso instant coffee
40g butter
2 tsp icing sugar

Method

Preheat the oven to 220ºC, gas mark 7. Grease a 900g loaf tin, then line it with a long strip of parchment paper, so you have 2 ends sticking out to use as handles.
Mash the bananas in a large mixing bowl. Add the oil and sugar. Mix well. Add the remaining cake ingredients and fold together. Do not overmix. Spoon into the lined tin. Bake for 20 minutes, then cover loosely with foil and bake for 25 minutes more until risen, golden and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
Meanwhile, make the espresso butter. Mix the espresso powder with 1 tsp boiling water to dissolve, then beat together with the butter and icing sugar until smooth
Leave the cake to cool slightly in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely before cutting. Enjoy as it is with the espresso butter on day 1, or serve toasted and buttered from day 2 onwards.

Cook’s tip

Make chocolate-filled brioche French toast. Use sliced brioche and chopped up leftover Easter chocolate to make a sandwich, soak in beaten egg and fry in butter on both sides.

Make a two-ingredient fudge sauce to pour over ice cream, by mixing condensed milk with chopped up milk or dark chocolate and melting together slowly over a low heat. Finish with a pinch of sea salt flakes and serve warm.

Even if you only have a little chocolate left over, chop it up and add to cookie dough to make it go that little bit further.