Raspberry and chocolate loaf

It's winter and not a raspberry in sight here but raspberries we had to have. Grace had a project for school which involved some food styling. She decided to make meringue nests with cream and raspberries. To say they were not the sweetest raspberries I had ever eaten would be an understatement. And at $7.99 for a 125gram punnet which equates to almost $64/kilo I was tempted to tell her to use lolly raspberries. Frozen just weren't going to satisfy either apparently. Anyway that's my gripe and I am over it now. But I was determined not to let a single one of those sour little berries go to waste.

 

 

So onto a recipe where a little tartness doesn't matter so much. Raspberry and chocolate loaf. 

 

I should have waited for a day which is more conducive to photography so I apologise for the poor pictures but fresh raspberries wait for no one.

Raspberry and Chocolate Loaf

 

Ingredients

2 cups plain flour

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 cup sugar

90grams butter, softened

2 eggs

1 banana, mashed (I keep a stash of frozen bananas just for this kind of thing)

1/4 cup yoghurt

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips/chunks

1/2 cup white chocolate chunks

125 grams raspberries, halved (minus a few for school projects is ok)

 

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degC. Grease and line a loaf tin.

Mix the flour and soda together in a mixing bowl.

In a separate bowl cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, vanilla, banana and yoghurt and beat until combined.

Stir the wet mixture into the dry mixture until just combined then stir through the chocolate.

Fold in the raspberries gently.

Pour the mixture into the baking tin and bake for approximately one hour until a skewer comes out clean. In my oven it takes one hour but it is probably a good idea to start checking at the 50 minute mark.

Allow to cool for 10 minutes then remove from the tin and allow to cool on a wire rack.

I don't actually bother letting it cool completely before having a slice. It is delicious while still warm. And blueberries would be nice instead of raspberries too. Or just make it as a chocolate laced banana bread.

That's my recipe for the day. Frugal but not cheap. What is cheap this long weekend in Australia at least is the free access to  Ancestry. com's British records. That's what will keep me occupied on this cold damp afternoon.
Tracy