“Yes. This is THE banana bread. The bread that launched a million tweets and a hundred thousand Instagram tags, and had people all along the California coast offering to trade their brownest bananas for a make-up palette, a pair of John [Legend]’s used underwear (it was clean; I’m not an animal), and the chance to meet my trusty assistant/mom, @PepperThai2,” explains model, presenter, cookbook writer and wife of singer John Legend, Chrissy Teigen.
“Perfecting this single recipe took me nearly a year. That’s why I needed so many damn bananas. It was a fine, yummy banana bread. But something wasn’t SPECIAL about it. I tried a million different things. Using banana pudding mix made it taste fake.
“Toasting the top with salty coconut made it a little too coconutty. Nuts were too controversial among my friends. Milk chocolate blended in too much. But it turned out that putting the coconut inside left it with a subtle hint of sweet coconut goodness, vanilla pudding gave it a fluffy, moist texture I could never have imagined, and dark chocolate gave it a… I dunno, do I need to explain why putting in chocolate is a good thing?
“Can you toss nuts in this? Sure. Can you use a different chocolate? Why not. But I’m telling you – I did this every way humanly possible so you wouldn’t have to. And the hundreds of banana bread pictures I’m tagged in (daily!) prove this.
“And who is Uncle Mike, you ask? He’s a guy who simply loves this bread. That was enough for me.”
Banana bread
Equipment
- 2 bowls
- Bundt pan
Ingredients
- 6 bananas mashed, very ripe
- 4 eggs
- 170 ml plain flour plus a little more for dusting the pan
- 450 g sugar
- 1 box of vanilla instant pudding mix (96g)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1.5 tsp salt kosher
- 60 g unsweetened shredded coconut
- 1 bar of dark chocolate chopped into chunks
- salted butter for serving
Method
- Preheat the oven to 325ËšF/160ËšC.
- In a large bowl, combine the mashed bananas, eggs and oil. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, sugar, pudding mix, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and combine well BUT GENTLY. I swear this came out differently when I used an aggressive electric mixer. Fold in the coconut and chocolate chunks.
- Grease and flour a Bundt pan (that means wipe a little grease all over the inside of the pan, dust it with flour, and tip it upside down to shake out any extra flour). Pour the batter into the pan. (This can also make two 20 x 10-cm loaves, but it’s so much more moist in one Bundt pan!)
- Bake until the cake springs when lightly pressed and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean, 55 to 60 minutes. (Test it with a toothpick at around 50 minutes.) Let it cool slightly in the pan, then use a butter knife to gently release the cake from the sides of the pan and around the inner circle, then flip it onto a plate.
- Let it cool and cut it into slices. Rewarm them and serve them with salty butter!
Nutrition
Cravings: Hungry For More by Chrissy Teigen is published by Michael Joseph.
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