The Short Story
- This bread will take forever to bake. Be patient!
- The ripeness of the bananas you use greatly affects the flavor
- Up to you if you add bananas, chocolate, or nothing to the top of the bread.
The Longer Story
- Due to the bananas, this is a very wet batter. This means your bread will take a longggg time to bake. Mine takes a little longer since I’m at a high altitude, but I would plan on about an hour at least. My favorite (and the most accurate) way to test if the bread is done is by using an instant-read thermometer in the center of the bread. It should temp between 200-205°F when it’s done. If you don’t have a thermometer, testing the middle with a toothpick works fine too.
- As bananas ripen, enzymes break down starch into simple sugars, making the bananas much sweeter. This doesn’t necessarily mean you need bananas on the verge of rotting to make a good banana bread, but you should be aware of how your bread might change with the bananas you use. If you use ripe bananas (spotted brown), your bread will be a little lighter in color since there aren’t as many sugars to caramelize and darken, and a little less sweet. Overripe (brown, mushy) bananas will give you a darker, sweeter bread. Neither is right or wrong, but you can choose your preference once you know how the bananas will affect the bread.
- In the batch on the left below, I topped the bread with a banana split length-wise (ignore how small the loaf is, I hadn’t figured out the ideal amount of batter yet). This looks amazing, but I’m not a fan of plain bananas, so I didn’t love them sitting on top of the bread. In the batch on the right, I didn’t add anything to the top, and I much prefer the taste, but it looks a little plain. Next time I make it I plan to sprinkle chocolate chips on top to make the top more attractive and avoid any plain bananas on top. Do whatever you prefer!
Chocolate-Orange Banana Bread
Recipe slightly adapted from Paul Hollywood
Ingredients
– 3-4 ripe bananas (4 if you want to add a sliced banana on top)
-250g (1¼ cups) granulated sugar
-125g (1 stick plus 1 Tbsp.) unsalted butter
-Finely grated zest of 1 orange
-2 large eggs
250g (2 cups) all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
170g (1 cup) semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350°F. Line a 9-inch bread pan with parchment paper. Let the paper drape over the sides so you can use it to lift the bread out at the end.
- Place 3 peeled bananas, sugar, butter, and orange zest in a large bowl. Beat using an electric beater until mixture is smooth.
- Add eggs to the banana mixture, 1 at a time, beating well between each addition.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and chocolate chips.
- Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture, and fold together until combined.
- Pour batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top of the surface with a spatula or the back of a spoon.
- Press two halves of a banana, split lengthwise and facing up, into the top of the bread if desired.
- Bake for 60-90 minutes (this will vary greatly based on your oven and altitude). Bread is done when it reads 200-205°F throughout the loaf, or when a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.
- Use the parchment sling to lift the bread out of the pan and onto a wire rack to cool.