Chocolate, Salted Caramel & Banana Bread

Last night I had this strong desire to bake, not for any orders, just…selfishly…for myself…and my family of course 🙂 I wanted to whip up something quick and delicious, which I could munch on for a quick breakfast snack in the morning and definitely straight out of the oven too.

The flavours that came to mind was banana for that healthy breakfast element but that was as far as I could stretch the healthy flavouring, next was chocolate, because why not? The final flavour for pure decadence was salted caramel. Chocolate, Salted Caramel and Banana Bread was then the mission at hand 🙂

I drew inspiration from Kristie’s (The Sweet and Simple Kitchen) Marbled Banana Bread but decided to adapt it by roasting the banana, sugar, vanilla, butter and cinnamon in the oven to intensify the flavours and and to pop in pieces of salted caramel. Oh my…each slice and bite is honestly an exciting flavour party in your mouth. The other great thing is that it’s super quick to make.

You think this would be incredibly sweet, but it was perfect, simply because I used the Natura Sugars light muscavado sugar, all their sugar is unrefined with no added syrup, is unbleached as well as non-GM and non-irradiated so you don’t get that overbearing sweet sugar taste, it’s the good stuff! I also used 52% Lindt chocolate to balance the sweetness and Woolworths’ legendary handmade salted caramel blocks.

Please don’t forget to take a pic and tag me on Instagram if you try this out 🙂 @sadiesbubbleofyum

Chocolate, Salted Caramel & Banana Bread

Ingredients:

• 3 ripe bananas
• 3/4 cup brown sugar (I used Natura Sugars Light Muscavado)
• 2 tsp vanilla essence or extract
• 125g melted butter
• 2 eggs (at room temparature)
• 1/2 cup sour cream or plain yoghurt
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)

For the marble:

• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup chopped chocolate (I used Lindt 52% choc)

Method: 

• Preheat the oven to 180C
• In a baking tray, place the bananas, sugar, vanilla and butter in foil, loosely closing it, making sure it won’t spill out. Pop this into the oven for 15min
• Remove from the oven, carefully emptying all this delicious goodness into a bowl, mash it all together and allow to cool
•  Once cool, add the eggs and whisk vigorously to aerate the mixture
• Add the sour cream to the mixture and whisk to combine
• Sieve the flour, bicard, baking powder and salt into the mixture and fold the dry ingredient, be careful not to overmix, some lumps are totally fine.
• Scoop half of the mixture into another bowl and sieve the cocoa powder into one bowl and add the chopped chocolate, fold to combine.
• In a loaf tin greased and lined with baking paper, scoop both mixtures, alternating to begin creating the marbled effect. Using a knife, twirl the top layer of the mixture to weave the two mixture together to create the desired marble effect.
• Chop the salted caramel into your desired size and press them into the batter.
• Pop the loaf into the oven, preheated to 175C and bake for 40min or until a skewer comes out clean.
• Slice and enjoy!
• Could definitely be served warm with a dollop or two of whipped cream 🙂