This is not your granny's banana bread. The combination of chocolate, coffee and hazelnuts is deliciously decadent, with an impressive marbled interior that takes the humble banana bread to a whole new level.
It has a moist, tender middle, crunchy hazelnuts on top and a generous scattering of espresso and hazelnut Seed and Bean dark chocolates throughout, which helps bring out the coffee and hazelnut flavours. And it doesn't quite use the full bars, which means you'll have a little something to snack on while you wait for your banana bread to bake.
It’s also coincidentally gluten free so you can feed it to any gluten free pals, but use gluten free baking powder if so.
Try it as part of a special breakfast or brunch with a dollop of yoghurt, or for a luxurious pudding with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
INGREDIENTS:
(Makes 1 loaf)
- 125 hazelnuts
- 100g buckwheat flour
- 1tsp baking powder (gf if needed)
- 1/4tsp xanthan gum
- a big pinch salt
- 3 large bananas, the riper the better
- 3 eggs
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 4 tbsp honey
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp greek yoghurt
- 3 tbsp freshly brewed coffee
- 3 tbsp cocoa powder
- 60g Seed and Bean Espresso Dark Chocolate
- 60g Seed and Bean Hazelnut Dark Chocolate
METHOD:
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Grease a loaf tin with a little oil or butter and line with baking paper.
- Set aside 25g of the hazelnuts and roughly chop them, then use a food processor to finely grind the remaining 100g. Add the buckwheat flour, ground hazelnuts, xanthan gum, baking powder and salt to the food processor and blend until combined.
- Mash the bananas roughly in a large bowl with a fork; it doesn’t matter if they’re still a little lumpy. Crack the eggs into the bowl and beat into the bananas with a fork or whisk until well combined.
- Next add the oil, honey, vanilla extract and yoghurt, and whisk into the eggs and banana. Then tip in the buckwheat flour, ground hazelnuts, xanthan gum, baking powder and salt and fold in until just combined.
- Brew your coffee, then allow to cool slightly. Divide the batter in two by transferring half of it to a separate bowl. Add in the coffee and sifted cocoa into one of the bowls and fold in, so that you have one bowl of chocolate and coffee and one bowl of vanilla batter. Roughly chop your two chocolates and divide between the two bowls, folding half of the chunks into each batter.
- Take the prepared loaf tin and fill with alternating scoops of the two batters. Then, using a toothpick or skewer, swirl the batters together in places to give a marbled effect. Finally, sprinkle the remaining chopped hazelnuts over the top.
- Transfer to the oven and bake for about 40-45 minutes, until the top is a deep golden brown and the banana bread is firm. Allow to cool completely in the tin before turning out and serving, then dig in! It should keep well in an airtight container for about five days, if it lasts that long.
Thanks so much to Hope Cooks for this recipe. Check her out, and her other recipes on Instagram here.
