Chocolate Chip, Fruit And Nut Banana Bread

By Chris De La Rosa
Culinary Specialist

I’m not the biggest fan of banana bread — or so I thought — until I started making this stunning banana, fruit and nut bread. An excellent way to start the day is with a thick slice, warmed for about 10 seconds, a thin layer of butter and my favourite cup of coffee.

The difference why I like this bread is, the Fruit and Nut chocolate bar I use in the recipe. I’m a HUGE fan of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Fruit and Nut Chocolate.

I know many people treat a banana bread as something that’s only made, when there’s ripe bananas, which are going bad on your counter. However, the flavors of this bread, which is simple to make, is so enchanting, I know you’ll purposely purchase bananas, just for making this recipe.

You’ll Need…..
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter (melted)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 ripe bananas (mashed)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 1/2 fruit and nut chocolate bar (about 1 1/2 cups chopped)
cooking spray

Peel, rough-chop and crush the ripe bananas with a fork, until fully crushed, and set aside. In a large bowl, add the flour (sifted may be best), baking soda and salt, whisk and set aside. In another bowl, place the egg and egg yolk, vanilla, melted butter, sour crème (yes I used the high fat one) and one cup sugar. Whisk until smooth, or use an electric mixer if you want. You’ll want to work all the grains of sugar, until there’s no grit.

Add the crushed banana to this wet mix, and mix well. I added the cinnamon and nutmeg now, but I should have added it to my dry ingredients….. no stress, all good.

Preheat the oven to 350 F, then add the flour mixture to the wet batter. Fold in as to not overwork the finished dough. Give the chocolate bar a rough-chop so you have chunky pieces. Then fold 2/3 of the chocolate into the batter and reserve 1/3 for topping the bread.

I then poured the batter into a greased loaf pan (I used cooking spray, but you can use melted butter if you wish). And on went the reserved chocolate pieces, onto the middle rack in the pre-heated 350 oven. BTW, the loaf pan I used was also non-stick. Level off the top of the batter with a spatula.

One hour later, and the banana nut bread will be ready! Your kitchen will smell GREAT. Allow it to cool for about 5 minutes in the pan, then turn it over on a cooling rack until it’s fully cooled and ready for slicing.

I used my favourite chocolate bar as mentioned above, but you can use chocolate chips or even your favourite chocolate bar. As far as the fruit you use, be creative and use the dried fruit you like – or leave them out, if you so choose.

While I’m not a fan of hazel nor walnut, you can certainly add those (chopped) or pecans, cashews, almonds….. basically any nut you enjoy.

This recipe is courtesy of Gourmand Award-winning cookbook author and founder of CaribbeanPot.com, Chris De La Rosa. With over 450 printable recipes, with step by step cooking instructions and demo videos, PLUS over 1 million social/fan connections, globally, every month, CaribbeanPot.com is the world’s #1 resource for Caribbean Culinary Culture. Connect with Chis on Instagram: www.instagram.com/caribbeanpot/.