This recipe isn’t very seasonal but it’s always a good one to have in your arsenal for all the stray, over ripe nannas in the fruit bowl.
Chocolate and bananas are a marriage made in heaven they always go together no matter what you do. Now let’s add to the tropical – ness by bunging in some flaked coconut slices to the equation.
By placing sliced whole bananas on top you get a lovely soft bit in each serving.
Eat hot and you have a pudding effect and cold and you are scoffing the most gorgeous squidgy cake which could be bunged into lunchboxes for school or work.
Recipe credit Candace Brown
2 bananas
70g plain flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp baking powder
30 cocoa powder
50g unsalted butter, softened
75g dark brown soft sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp plain yoghurt
50g desiccated coconut
75g dark chocolate)
1 banana, cut in half lengthways
TO DECORATE
25g coconut flakes
100g dark chocolate
● Preheat the oven to 160C fan (180C/350F/ gas 4). Grease a 450g (1lb) loaf tin and line with greaseproof paper.
● Put the peeled bananas in a large mixing bowl and mash them with a fork, or beat using an electric mixer. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and cocoa powder into the bowl and add the soft butter, sugar, egg and milk. Mix until well combined using a wooden spoon or the mixer. Fold in the desiccated coconut.
● Using a sharp knife, chop the dark chocolate into small irregular pieces. Add to the cake mixture and fold in until evenly distributed. Pour into the lined loaf tin. Lay the banana halves, cut-side up, on top. Bake for 40-50 minutes – test by inserting a skewer in the middle of the loaf; it should come out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes before turning out on to a wire rack to cool fully.
● Place the flaked coconut in a cold frying pan and gently toast over a low heat until slightly golden. (Keep the coconut moving in the pan and watch carefully as it will brown quickly.) Tip on to a piece of kitchen paper and allow to cool.
● Melt the dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of boiling water. Drizzle the melted chocolate over the top of the loaf, then sprinkle on the toasted flaked coconut.
Enjoy
