This chocolate and pecan nut studded bread is moist and tasty, ideal for a picnic or afternoon treat. This recipe, a great substitute for banana bread, has less sugar in it, so you might as well have two slices!
Prep time: 30 mins
Bake time: 55 mins
Total time: 1 hr, 20 mins
Ingredients:
375g Risen Super White Spelt Flour
180g caster sugar
215g vegetable oil
1 medium courgette, grated
2 eggs, lightly beaten
150g dark chocolate pieces
100g pecan nut pieces
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
1.5 tsps ground cinnamon
2 tsps vanilla essence
Method:
Preheat your oven to 180C. Grease the bottom and line a loaf pan then set aside. It's better to use two small loaf pans as this is quite a dense cake and it will help them hold their shape.
In a large bowl stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Make a well in the center of flour mixture.
In another bowl, combine the eggs, grated courgette, sugar, oil, and vanilla essence. Add mixture the courgette mixture to the flour mixture. Stir just until moistened, it will be like lumpy batter.
Fold in nuts (if desired) and 2/3rds of the chocolate pieces. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan, spreading evenly.
Bake for about 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. You may find you need to put some foil over it for the last 15 minutes to prevent the top going too dark. Let it rest in the tin for 10 minutes and then cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes.
Melt the remaining dark chocolate and drizzle over the loaf, if you want.