Chocolate Chunk Banana Bread with Brown Sugar Crumble

Banana bread with a delicate crumb, chopped bittersweet chocolate and a buttery brown sugar crumble. Makes one 9 × 5-inch loaf.

Recipe by Stuart O’Keeffe.

Ingredients

For the banana bread

• 1 cup all-purpose flour, plus a little for tossing the chocolate
• ¾ cup cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
• ½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 large eggs
• 1¾ cups mashed ripe bananas (430 g, about 3 large bananas)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, about 60% cacao, chopped

For the crumble

• ⅓ cup brown sugar
• ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Pinch of salt
• 3 tablespoons cold butter, cubed

Method

1. Heat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9 × 5-inch loaf pan.
2. Make the crumble: mix the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt in a bowl. Rub in the cold butter with your fingertips until clumpy. Set aside.
3. Whisk the all-purpose flour, cake flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together in a bowl.
4. In a large bowl, beat the butter and dark brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl between additions. Mix in the vanilla and mashed banana.
5. Fold in the dry ingredients just until combined. Toss the chopped chocolate with a little flour, then gently fold it into the batter.
6. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and scatter the crumble evenly over the top.
7. Bake for 50–60 minutes, until a wooden pick inserted into the bread comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. Avoid melted chocolate pockets when testing. If the top browns too quickly, cover loosely with foil.
8. Let the loaf cool in the pan for 20 minutes, then remove it and finish cooling on a wire rack.