Banana, chocolate and almond cake
There are few traditions that have a link with family in the way that baking does. Much of what I bake has been passed on to me by my parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. The taste of my great-grandmother's fruit cake is something I will never forget. To this day I use her recipe and will go out of my way to pass it on to the next generation.
Sometimes, new traditions appear. I've been meaning to write about this particular banana bread recipe for a while now. I came across it a couple of years ago, and it is now entrenched here in the Mannering household. Loaf cakes seem to stand somewhere in the middle between health-conscious treat and all-out guilty pleasure. This is indeed a bit of both. What I don't feel at all bad about doing is grilling great thick slices of it in the oven for breakfast.
Use whatever type of chocolate you like. Sometimes I prefer the bitter kick of dark chocolate, but almost equally often I crave the sweet richness of milk chocolate.
Ingredients:
- 150ml vegetable oil
- 200g brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
- 2 eggs
- 350g ripe bananas, roughly mashed
- 70g Greek yoghurt
- 50g roast almonds, roughly chopped
- 150g chocolate, roughly chopped
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- Pinch of salt
- 220g wholemeal flour
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 170°C.
- Grease a regular loaf tin (mine is 26cm x11cm) and line with baking paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat together the vegetable oil, brown sugar, vanilla essence and eggs.
- Add the mashed banana and yoghurt, followed by the almonds and chocolate, and mix well to combine.
- Combine the baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and flour in another bowl, then sieve into the banana mixture. Gently fold in so that everything is only just incorporated.
- Transfer the mixture to the lined tin and smooth off the top.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 45-55 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
- Allow to cool down in the tin before turning out and polishing off.
Written by Sam Mannering. First appeared on Stuff.co.nz.
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