Bitter Chocolate Banana Bread

Bitter Chocolate Banana Bread

This banana bread is delicious and chocolatey without being sweet and has incredible depth of flavour. I have included the substitutes for ingredients in brackets, to make it vegan. Enjoy this tea-time bread with a spread of salted butter.

220g banana, mashed (about three bananas)
5ml apple cider vinegar
35g butter, melted (nut butter)
300ml milk (soy milk)
100g sugar (Erythritol/any other sweetener)
a pinch of salt
200g flour
2,5ml bicarbonate of soda
10ml baking powder
50g cacao powder
40g + 40g dark chocolate, chopped

Preheat your oven to 180℃ and line a small bread tin (22cm X 11cm) with baking paper.
Mash the banana with a fork in a mixing bowl.
Add the vinegar, melted butter and milk and mix through with a spatula.
Add the sugar to this mixture and stir through.
Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and cacao powder into the bowl and mix well.
Stir in 40g of the chopped chocolate.
Spoon the batter into the prepared bread tin and sprinkle the other 40g of chopped chocolate on top.
Bake the bread for 1 hour 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the bread, comes out clean.
Take the banana bread from the oven and lift the bread from the tin by holding the ends of the baking paper.
Cool the bread completely on a cooling rack before cutting.
Serve with a spreading of salted butter.


No-Knead Olive Bread

No-Knead Olive Bread

This bread involves absolutely no kneading or fussing and I guarantee you that it will be one of THE best olive breads you have ever tasted.

360g bread flour
1,2ml instant yeast
10ml salt
310ml tepid water
250ml olives, stoned and sliced in half

Add the flour, yeast and salt to a large mixing bowl.
Pour the water into the bowl and mix.
Add the olives to the dough mixture and make sure they are evenly distribute – squish them with your hands.
Cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave at room temperature to rest for about 18 hours.

Flour a working surface and scrape the dough onto it.
Form the dough into a ball shape and place it onto a square of baking paper. Cover with a tea towel and allow to rest for another hour.

Preheat your oven as well as a dutch oven to 230℃. (A dutch oven is simply a cast iron pot with a tight-fitting lid)
Once the oven temperature is reached, remove the dutch oven and lift the bread in the paper, into the dutch oven. Replace the lid of the dutch oven and immediately place the bread into the oven.
Bake for 30 minutes, remove the lid of the dutch oven and bake for another 25 minutes.
Take the bread from the oven an cool for about ten minutes before removing it from the dutch oven.
Cool the bread completely before slicing.

Beetroot Bread

Beetroot Bread

This bread has a moist texture and is absolutely perfect for a topping of tomato, salad, cucumber and avocado. Easy to make and it will prettify your table!

10ml instant yeast
350ml water, lukewarm
500g bread flour
10ml salt
250g beetroot, grated
30ml oil

Sprinkle the yeast onto the water and give it a good stir.
Add the flour, salt, beetroot and oil to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook and mix on low speed for one minute.
Add the yeast mixture and mix/knead for another 3 minutes.
At this stage you want a dough that comes loose from the sides of the bowl. If the dough is too soft to come together in a ball, add a handful of flour and allow your machine to incorporate it. Keep adding small amounts of bread flour until the dough just comes together in a kneadable dough.
Add a few drops of vegetable oil to a clean mixing bowl and cover the sides and bottom with a thin layer. Now add the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap/a bag and put aside to rest for an hour.
Preheat your oven to 210℃.
Take the dough from the bowl, gently knock it back and shape it into a round. Place on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Cover the bread with a clean tea towel and rest for another 20 minutes.
Bake the bread for 30 minutes.
Cool completely before cutting.

If you would like to “decorate” your bread as in the image below, follow the following guidelines:
Once you have knocked back the dough, cut about a third of the dough from the rest.
Shape the larger quantity dough into a ball and place it in a small, deep cake tin. Brush the surface with a small amount of water.
Roll the rest of the dough to a 1cm thickness and cut into strips about three centimetres wide.
Roll each strip into a coil and place onto the dough ball.
Stand for 20 minutes before baking.