I made the best banana bread of my life by adding 1 unusual ingredient

Banana bread, a delicious sweet treat and source of comfort during those early days of the pandemic, is still very popular today - and for good reason. It's tasty, you only need a few ingredients to bake it, and it's very easy to jazz up with whatever extras that you want.

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with banana bread. I recently tried a Mary Berry recipe which failed so badly that I couldn't bring myself to write about it, but instead of being put off, I immediately gave it another shot. Thankfully, this time it was so much better, fluffier and more delicious - and I believe one unusual ingredient is to thank.

After my disappointment at the Mary Berry banana bread basically not rising at all in the oven, I found another recipe on Good Food which looked a bit more promising. And despite only having one ripe banana left at home, I decided to give it a go - with a few key switches made.

First off, I didn't have any self-raising flour, so I added an extra half-teaspoon of baking powder which surprisingly did the trick. Then, when I was finished mixing the batter, I threw in my secret ingredient - orange chocolate.

Everyone loves a Terry's, but if you've never thought about putting orange chocolate in your banana bread, I strongly advise you give it a try. It might sound like the flavours would clash, but they didn't at all. It gave the banana bread an extra hit of indulgence and an almost festive taste, so this might be my new go-to bake for the upcoming Christmas period.

Here's how you can make it at home.

Chocolate orange banana bread

Ingredients

• 140g butter, softened, plus extra for the tin
• 140g caster sugar
• Two large eggs, beaten
• 140g self-raising flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• One very ripe banana, mashed
• 100g orange chocolate, chopped into fine pieces
• 50g icing sugar
• Handful dried banana chips

Method

First, preheat your oven to 180C, and grease and line a 2lb loaf tin with baking paper. Then, using an electric whisk, cream together the butter and caster sugar until you've got a light and fluffy mixture.

Add the beaten eggs slowly and continue to mix together with a few tablespoons of the flour.

Then, add the rest of the flour, the baking powder and the mashed banana, and fold the mixture together with a spatula. Once it's all mixed, pour in the chopped chocolate and fold this in too.

Then, add the batter to the loaf tin, making sure it's evenly filling it up. Take the spatula again and level the top so that it's nice and smooth.

Bake for around 45 minutes, checking after 30 minutes to ensure it's not burning. If it looks a bit brown, move it to a lower shelf in the oven or turn the heat down very slightly. To check if it's done, insert a toothpick to the centre, and it should come out clean.

Leave to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes then remove from the tin, keeping it in the paper and letting it cool completely.

For the topping, mix together the icing sugar a few teaspoons of water, mixing until you have the desired consistency. Drizzle this over the loaf, then sprinkle some banana chips on top, slice up and enjoy.