Cardamom & Dark Chocolate Banana Bread

Not to give you pandemic flashbacks... but this rich, spiced loaf is worth it

Hellooooo. I am so so sorry for the delay on this week’s recipe, I was holed up in a hotel room in Aberdeen where I was doing a literary event. AND when I wasn’t on stage wanging on, I was writing frantically as I was on a deadline.

I know banana bread was done to death during the many, many lockdowns and we probably all needed a little break but now I am calling it: Banana Bread IS BACK! The addition of cardamom gives this banana bread a really intriguing extra dimension.

Cardamom & Dark Chocolate Banana Bread

Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients:

2 large or 3 small ripe bananas

70g butter, melted

200g caster sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Seeds of 10 cardamom pods, ground up

275g flour

100g dark chocolate

Preheat the oven to 180°FAN. In a large bowl, mash the bananas thoroughly, then mash in the butter, sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth.

Add the baking powder, salt, ground cardamom and the flour, and stir in ensuring no pockets of flour remain but do not over mix. Then stir in the chocolate.

Pour the batter into a lined loaf tin and bake for about 50-60 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out pretty much clean.