Bake It Sexy: Chocolate Spiced Banana Bread Bars

We may be easing our way out of the lockdown but during the course of these last few months, it's pretty safe to say that 2020 will always be known as the year:

• We ran out of bog roll!

• Hand sanitizer became more valuable that gold dust

• We baked banana bread like our lived depended on it!

In fact why there wasn't a shortage of bananas, we don't know. So as an ode to the humble banana bread loaf, we thought we'd zhuzh things up a bit and create these fabulous Triple Chocolate Banana Bread Bars. Who doesn't love the combination of chocolate and banana together? A match made in dessert heaven!

Makes: 16 cake bars

INGREDIENTS:

250g plain flour

130g butter, softened

100g soft brown sugar

3 ripe bananas

2 eggs, beaten

1tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

1tsp. ground cinnamon

1tsp. ground ginger

1tsp. ground cloves

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

50g chopped nuts (whatever you like!)

50g dark chocolate chips

30g cacao powder

50g milk chocolate chips

50ml milk

50ml condensed milk

THIS IS HOW WE DO IT:

1. Preheat oven to 160ºC.

2. Grease and line 2 22cm x 24cm cake tins.

3. Cream the butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl.

4. Mash the bananas. How smoothly you mash the depends on whether you like to find big banana chunks in your cake (we do!)

5. Add the mashed bananas to the butter and sugar mixture.

6. Then add the eggs, vanilla and spices.

7. Sieve the flour, baking powder, cacao powder and bicarbonate of soda into the bowl and mix well.

8. Add the chocolate chips, nuts and both types of milk and mix well.

9. Spoon mixture into the cake tins.

10. Bake in the middle shelf of oven for about 25 minsutes.

11. Insert a skewer or knife into the middle of the cake. If it comes out clean it's ready.

12. Take the banana bread out of the oven and allow to cool slightly.

13. Slice into rectangles while in the tin.

14. Remove from tin and scoff. Sharing optional.

COOK'S TIP:

1. Instead of making cake bars, this mixture can be used to make loaves or muffins. Just substitute cake tins for loaf tins or muffin tray lined with muffin cases.

2. A good glug of rum can be added to the mixture.

Photos: Pixabay

Word cloud: Angel Noire