Gluten free Ginger Chocolate Banana Bread

Saturday morning has become unofficial chore morning in our gaff. It has also become the time when I’m feeling most prone to a bout of procrasti-baking. Coincidence? It may very well be. So when I set about organising the snack box (yes we have a whole box, not a drawer) and stumbled across a big old box of Green & Blacks mini chocolate bars with a recipe leaflet inside, you can imagine how the rest of my morning played out…

First off, let me apologise for the lack of images of my chocolate banana loaf in tact. Whoops. I was just way to eager to tuck in and if you follow my Instagram stories, you will have seen a snap of my other half eating this baby straight from the tray – still steaming. We’re terrible, sorry.

Keep scrolling to the image below to find out what you actually need to recreate the Green & Blacks Burnt Toffee & Banana Bread recipe in all it’s authentic glory. Stick around here for a second if you want to find out how I whipped up my slightly improvised, GF interpretation. As you know from some of my previous recipes, I’m very much adhoc in kitchen so just go with it.

So for my chocolate banana bread recipe you will need:

225g all-purpose gluten free flour (cause that’s what I had in the cupboard)
2 teaspoons of GF baking powder (to create a substitute for self-raising flour)
1/2 teaspoon of salt (I used Pink Himalayan sea salt)
100g of Flora Pro-Activ spread (because we didn’t have butter in the fridge)
175g caster sugar – straight up
2 large eggs
2 super ripe bananas (the spottier the better)
3 tablespoons of milk
100g of basically whatever chocolate you’ve got knocking about (I used a combo of Green & Blacks Ginger, Hazelnut and Dark 85%)

The prep:

Let your butter/spread come to room temperature
Smush both bananas into a beautiful mashed up mess
Beat your eggs together
Smash all of the chocolate into teeny tiny pieces
Line your baking tray with grease-proof paper or a coat of spread/butter
Preheat your oven to 180°c (gas mark 4)

The method in the madness:

Cream the butter/spread and caster sugar together
Chuck in the eggs, bananas and milk then mix thoroughly
Sieve the flour, baking powder and salt together
Fold the dry ingredients into the wet batter
Add half of the chocolate and fold again
Pour into your stick-proof tray
Sprinkle on the remaining chocolate pieces
Bake for about 45 minutes – an hour (just keep an eye on it)

As I said, my version turned out taller, fluffier and more crumbly than the one in the Green & Blacks recipe booklet. I guess whether that’s a good or bad thing is 100% personal preference but on rainy afternoon when the kettle’s boiling, either would go down a treat I’m sure.

I also found that my hunky chunks of chocolate sank to the bottom of the tray so here’s a top tip for ya (which I totally forgot to do): toss your chocolate in a bit of flour before adding them to the mixture as it will help keep them suspended in the batter.

Let me know which version you try out!