When Choclette at Chocolate Log Blog announced that this month’s We Should Cocoa challenge was orange, I was pretty happy as I already had several bakes in mind using the combination, as it just seems so festive.
I intend to make a chocolate orange cheesecake for Boxing Day, but that will be too late for the WSC deadline, and I was also considering some sort of orange flavoured chocolate truffle as a one of the food gifts I give this year, but again that might be pushing it a bit for time.
What I’m actually submitting came about more by circumstance than design. I had over-ripe bananas that needed to be used, and homemade orange curd that hadn’t quite set thickly enough, so I decided to make a chocolate chip banana bread, throw in some orange curd and hope for the best.
Luckily, it turned out great! I adapted a recipe from The Goddess’s Kitchen, which already included orange zest, and ended up with a moist, dense loaf, with both the banana and orange flavours coming through equally, and the dark chocolate chunks adding a nice texture contrast (and of course essential chocolate deliciousness!)
I’m yet to find a go-to banana bread recipe, and although I don’t think this is it as I don’t normally have orange curd going spare, I might try it again just as plain banana and chocolate because the texture was spot on!
Chocolate orange banana bread (recipe adapted from The Goddess’s Kitchen)
- 4 ripe bananas (this was about 400g for me)
- 250g self raising flour
- 1tsp baking powder
- 150g caster sugar
- 100g butter
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp orange curd
- 100g dark chocolate, chopped
Sift together the flour and baking powder, then add in the sugar and butter and rub until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Mash the bananas in a bowl with a fork, then mix in the eggs, vanilla, orange curd and chocolate. Pour the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
Pour the mixture into a lined 2 lb loaf tin, then bake at 170 degrees for about an hour and 10 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool overnight if possible, then slice and serve!
I look forward to seeing what everyone else does with the chocolate-orange combo, and keep an eye out for more variations on it from me!
The texture here looks wonderful and I so like the addition of orange curd. Hope you find your go to banana bread recipe, but this one sounds pretty good to me. I’ve made several banana cakes recently as I had a batch of bananas to use up and each one tasted better than the last! Thanks for your continuing participation in WSC.
you should DEF try the Tessa Kiros banana bread recipe, its perfect! I cant believe I havent blogged about it yet, ive made it so many times! its my go to recipe, as is her carrot cake recipe, which I HAVE blogged about! theyre quite similar actually.http://wherethewindblowsher.blogspot.com/2011/06/too-many-carrots.html
I’ve not seen that recipe before, but I will search for it now and give it a go if it’s that highly recommended!
definately! Ive added dark choc chips to it and bf was very impressed! Has been delicious everytime, nice and moist! mmmmm
Well thanks for the tip, I’ll let you know how it goes! The carrot cake sounds really good too – that’s another thing on my ‘to-bake’ list!