Baked Banana and Chocolate Chunk Donuts with Marbled Dark and White Chocolate Ganache

Welcome to day 6 of donut week! I'm really excited to share today's post with you as I have been trying to perfect a good banana recipe for a while, these Baked Banana and Chocolate Chunk donuts are THAT recipe.

I love the idea of baking with bananas as they are naturally so moist, sweet and flavoursome when over ripe and mashed. I am yet to succeed in making a banana bread I am 100% happy with and I do not believe in posting recipes I don't feel fully confident in myself! I may be on the verge of success though so stay tuned! Anyway, I digress, this post is meant to be about donuts!

 

If I had to choose a winner from all the donuts so far for 'most moist' it would be these. The banana combined with the milk and yoghurt (two key ingredients in my baked donuts no matter what flavour and other ingredients I want to use.) really makes for a moist, melt in your mouth donut.

Of course my excitement about my success with the donuts had to be paired with a disaster...

my camera has broken (or my charger, but I am convinced it is the camera) after 4 years of beautiful companionship. It saw me through my trip to Ghana so I am very attached to my camera, I will not loose faith though, maybe it can be fixed! I can't see about fixing it until after my exams though so in the mean time Hannah has kindly agreed to let me shoot on her iPhone 4S (very kindly indeed since it doesn't usually leave her blummin' palm - much to my irritation). So I apologise in advance for any shoddy camera work or a slight lack of photos but I will do my best with what I have to keep HHBB running as usual!

I hope you think these donuts are a worthy sacrifice!

These donuts are lovely fresh out of the oven, while the chocolate chunks are still all melty, or cooled with marbled white and dark chocolate ganache. They make for a nutritious breakfast, a great snack or a tasty after dinner treat.

Ingredients

For the donut:
90 g self-raising flour
45 g granulated sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
20 g unsalted butter
40 g plain Greek yoghurt
1 medium free-range egg
1/2 small-medium banana, mashed and very ripe - the riper the better (approx. 45 g)
Tip of a tsp vanilla bean paste (or 1/2 tsp vanilla extract)
50 g plain chocolate, chopped into chunks 

For the white chocolate ganache:
30 g white chocolate
15 ml double cream

For the dark chocolate ganache:
20 g plain chocolate
20 ml double cream

Directions

1. Pre heat oven to 170°C. Take two mixing bowls. In the smaller of the two combine the flour, baking powder and sugar and mix together well.

2. In the bigger mixing bowl mix together the mashed banana, yoghurt, milk, vanilla bean paste, unsalted butter, and 1 egg. Make sure you combine these ingredients well at this stage. Chop the chocolate into chunks, alternatively you could use chocolate chips, of course, and incorporate into the mixture.

3. Transfer the dry ingredients into the larger mixing bowl and combine all the ingredients minimally, just until they are incorporated so as not to overwork the gluten in the flour.

4. Transfer your mixture into a piping bag with a large nozzle (1cm diameter approx. make sure you're nozzle is big enough to let the chocolate chunks through!) and pipe the mixture into your donut pans until they are about 3/4 full.
5. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes, mine took exactly 11 minutes but obviously it depends on the temperature of your oven.

6. Leave the donuts to cool for about 10 minutes before you take them out the pan. I find that gently, and I mean really gently, twisting my mini individual pans like I am unscrewing a drinks bottle works best. When I tried to remove them with a palette knife I destroyed the clean lines of the base no matter how careful I was.
7. Whilst the donuts are cooling in their tins you can set about making the ganache. To make the white chocolate ganache put 30 g of white chocolate and 15 ml double cream in a heavy based pan on a low heat. Stir until the chocolate has melted and the cream is all mixed in. Transfer the white chocolate ganache from the pan with a spatula into a small tub or ramekin so you can make the dark chocolate ganache without adding another pan to the washing up pile! Make sure if you are using one pan that you make the white chocolate ganache before the dark chocolate ganache.
8. To make the dark chocolate ganache combine 20 g of plain chocolate with 20 ml of double cream and stir as in step 7.

9. Take a palette knife and spread the white chocolate ganache onto the donuts - this doesn't have to be neat. Next palette knife the dark chocolate ganache onto the donuts spreading it around with the white chocolate ganache to create a marbled effect.
10. Leave the donuts to set then serve, share, eat and ENJOY :)