Banana and Walnut Bread Recipe

I love blogger challenges and when I saw that Chobani yoghurt had a challenge to create a delicious brunch recipe I had to have a go. Chobani was not a yoghurt brand I was familiar with but they kindly sent me a range of their yoghurt to get me started in the challenge.

They have a great range of different flavours, Strawberry, Peach, Black Cherry, Blood Orange, Pomegranate and Plain. Reading a little bit more about them I discovered that they are just launching their yoghurt brand in the UK. Chobani yoghurt seek to use only natural ingredients in their yoghurt so each pot contains real fruit, fresh milk and natural sweeteners along with the live and active yoghurt cultures. The process used to create the yoghurt means each pot has twice the protein of normal yoghurt.

My son is a real yoghurt monster so I had to hide the pots before he ate them so I could devise my brunch recipe. Brunch to me means muffins, cakes and Danish pastries. I adore the idea of an apricot and yoghurt Danish pastry but am not sure I am skilled enough to create one. I decided to use the Chobani Plain yoghurt and make a banana and walnut bread.

I was quite pleased at how it turned out. I managed to try a piece, went out and came back to find my husband and son has demolished the lot. This is the recipe.

Ingredients

• 50g (2 oz) chopped walnuts
• 150ml vegetable oil
• 200g (8 oz) dark brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3-4 ripe bananas
• 75g (3 oz) natural yoghurt
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 teaspoon baking power
• ½ teaspoon mixed spice
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 225g (8 oz) plain flour

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170C, 325 F, Gas Mark 3.
2. Grease a loaf tin.
3. Peel the bananas, then mash them in a bowl then add the yoghurt and mix up.
4. Add the bicarbonate of soda, baking power, salt and mixed spice to the yoghurt and banana mixture and stir.
5. In a separate bowl mix up the dark brown sugar, eggs and oil until smooth
6. Add the yoghurt mixture and combine.
7. Finally add the flour and the walnuts and mix until the flour is all mixed in.
8. Place in the loaf tin and cook for 45 – 50 minutes. You can check it is done by putting a skewer or knife into the banana bread and seeing if it comes out clean.
9. Leave to cool in the tin for around ten minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.

I had a bit of spare banana so I experimented by pushing a whole banana into the mixture. It partly sunk and partly stayed on the surface but you could see it in the bread which made it look a little different.

Perfect with a cup of tea.

Read more:

• Pumpkin and walnut cake
• Danish Pastry
• Banana and Chocolate Bars Recipe

Disclosure: I was sent some Chobani yoghurt to help me with the recipe.