A lockdown baking favourite, banana bread is back on our radar with a delicious twist thanks to Amelia Ferrier from Melie’s Kitchen. Covered in both a chocolate and espresso glaze, this decadent loaf is just the ticket for an afternoon pick-me-up.
Banana Chocolate Chunk Loaf with Oozy Espresso and Dark Chocolate Glaze Recipe
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Ingredients:
Banana loaf
3 very ripe bananas
¾ cup caster sugar
¾ cup canola oil
3 eggs
1 ¾ cups self-raising flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
¾ tsp baking soda (sieved to remove any lumps)
¼ tsp table salt
150g milk or dark chocolate, roughly chopped into chunks
Chocolate glaze
40g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
½ tsp canola oil
Espresso glaze
1 ½ cups icing sugar
2-3 Tbsp strong black coffee
½ tsp vanilla extract
To serve
Handful of chopped, roasted nuts (optional)
Edible flowers (optional)
Method:
1. Preheat your oven to 180°C. Grease and line a regular-sized loaf tin with baking paper.
2. Peel bananas and add to a large bowl. Mash well with a potato masher or fork, until no chunks remain. Add caster sugar, oil and eggs and whisk well, until combined. Add self-raising flour, vanilla, baking soda and salt measure and whisk again, until just combined. Fold through chocolate chunks.
3. Spoon batter into the prepared loaf tin and bake on the lower-middle oven rack for 45-55 minutes, until golden and risen. A skewer inserted should come out mostly clean, with a few moist crumbs.
4. Leave to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes, before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
5. Once the loaf has cooled, make the glazes. For the chocolate glaze, add dark chocolate to a small heat-proof bowl. Microwave in 30-second bursts, stirring after each burst until completely melted. Stir through oil and set aside.
6. For the espresso glaze, add icing sugar to a medium bowl followed by 2 Tbsp of the coffee, vanilla and a pinch of salt (a little pinch of salt is important as this glaze is quite sweet). Whisk well until combined, adding more coffee 1 tsp at a time, until the icing has a thick but drizzle-able consistency. Be careful as it can become quite runny quite easily if you add too much liquid.
7. To assemble, spoon coffee glaze over the top of the loaf, spreading it out to the edges and corners. Let the icing drizzle down the sides of the loaf on its own. Immediately drizzle over the chocolate glaze, then swirl the two glazes together on top with a palette knife or the back of a spoon.
8. Sprinkle over roasted nuts and edible flowers, if desired.
