banoffee bread

Erika of The Teenage Taste, Abby of Munchin’ Mel, and I have started a new project called The Three Ingredient Challenge. Every month, we vote on three ingredients and a category (such as quick breads, cakes, brownies etc.) and see what we come up with! This months ingredients were hazelnuts, toffee, and cocoa. The category was quick breads, muffins and scones.

When we chose the category of quick breads, I knew I had to make banana bread.  I know, another banana bread recipe? Yes. But stay with me… this one is special.

This is not banana bread as you know it; this is banoffee bread, the love-child of mindbogglingly moist banana bread and sinfully delicious banoffee pie.

Banoffee is a clever little portmanteau of the words “banana” and “toffee.” Banoffee pie is a big thing across the pond.  It’s kind of like banana cream pie, but much better, and British. Two years ago my dad and I shared a big slice of banoffee pie in Leicester Square, and I will never forget it.  A buttery, slightly salty English shortbread crust, oozing with warm toffee and topped with an ungodly amount of whipped cream. The banana-lover in me was in heaven.

Alas, for some reason, it’s still not socially acceptable to eat a big, gooey slice of pie in the morning. But this banana bread provides a loophole. Now I can have my gooey toffee, banana sensation for breakfast, snack, dessert, and just because.
Do you ever wish you could eat dessert for breakfast?

With love,
Erica

*note, the grocery store was all out of cocoa powder… but I used two out of the three ingredients. That counts right?! Once you taste this bread… you’ll say it counts 😉

1 stick unsalted butter
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 Heath bars, finely chopped
1/3 cup chopped hazelnuts
2 large eggs
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup well-stirred whole-milk plain yogurt (I used peach, because that is all I had)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan and line with parchment paper.
In a small bowl, microwave the butter until just melted. (Be careful and do this over medium power in short burst because it can explode or splatter and that is a big mess.) Or melt it in the preheating oven. Set aside to cool slightly.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Add the chocolate chips and crystallized ginger and whisk well to combine. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, lightly beat the eggs with a fork. Add the mashed banana, yogurt, melted butter, and vanilla and stir to mix well. Pour the banana mixture into the dry ingredients, and stir gently with a rubber spatula, scraping down the sides as needed, until just combined. Do not overmix. The batter with be thick and somewhat lumpy, just make sure all the flour has been incorporated. Scrape the batter into the loaf pan and smooth the top.
Bake into the loaf is a deep shade of golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 50 mins to an hour. If the loaf seems to be browning too quickly, tent with foil.
Cool the loaf in the pan on a wire rack for 5 mins. Then tip out onto the rack, and let it cool completely before slicing (if you can wait that long).
The loaf freezes well wrapped in plastic wrap and again in foil to protect from freezer burn. Try it cold, sliced fresh out of the freezer.