Chocolate Banana Bread

Chocolate Banana Bread is one of my favourite recipes. 

This recipe is so good, I have been asked to enter it into cooking competitions.

Of course, I haven't entered my chocolate banana bread into anything except people's mouths!

The recipe is adapted from Bill Grainger’s book, Bills Food.

What's really good about making chocolate banana bread is that it's an extra-delicious way of using up those poor old bananas that went off before you got to eat them.

If you end up with a whole lot of bananas that are bruised or even black, then you can freeze them and use them later to make this yummy recipe.

One trick to making this recipe is NOT to over mix the dough. Make sure there's a few floury bits that aren't quite mixed in. For some reason, this keeps the mixture moist.

Ingredients

2 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking power
125g (4 1/2 oz) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup caster sugar
4 ripe (over ripe works even better) bananas, mashed
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
175g (1 cup) choc bits (I use those BIG choc buttons and put the WHOLE packet in!)

Method

Preheat oven to 180 C (350F).
Sift flour & baking powder in one bowl.
In another bowl, mix bananas, butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla ex. and choc chips.
Then add dry ingredients, but don’t overmix.
Pour the batter into a non-stick loaf tin & bake for about 1hr 15min (about 50min in fanforced oven), or until bread is cooked when tested with a skewer.
Cool in tin 5 min before turning out on wire rack.

Just remember: don't over mix the dough.

Also, take care with a fan-forced over as the cooking times can be much shorter (45 min in our oven).

I really hope you love this recipe as much as we all do! Chocolate banana bread is an absolute favourite in this house.

Aussie BBQ Sauce Recipe

A Real Aussie BBQ Sauce Recipe

Australians love barbeques. 

Most of us love sauce. 

Although many people here love tomato sauce (Americans call it 'tomato ketchup'), lots of us like BBQ sauce even better.

So I've trawled the recipe books and found a good old Aussie outback BBQ sauce recipe for you to try.
WARNING: This recipe is really easy to make and very tasty. 

Ingredients

Serves: 8

• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 1 dash hot sauce, such as Tabasco
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1/4 teaspoon mustard powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Method

Prep: 10 mins | Cook: 10 mins

In a small saucepan over medium heat, stir together the ketchup, sugar, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, hot sauce, garlic, mustard powder and salt.

Bring to a simmer, then remove from heat and allow to cool slightly before brushing on your favourite barbecued meats.


The secret is the Worcestershire sauce.  Use the Tabasco sparingly, especially if you've got friends with delicate tastebuds!


I don't know about you, but I've found this Aussie BBQ sauce recipe so easy and yummy, I won't be buying the commercial brands ever again.

Let me know if how this BBQ sauce recipe goes for you in the comments below.