Paul Hollywood's 'beautiful' banana bread has 1 unusual ingredient for an 'extra kick'

Adding one unexpected ingredient to your banana bread will add a "delicious" kick to your bake, according to Paul Hollywood. The Great British Bake Off judge says that putting orange in your banana bread is a great way to add some extra flavour.

He explains: "Orange adds such a beautiful flavour to banana bread, it gives a nice kick of flavour." Hollywood also mixes chocolate into his bake, saying: "Orange and the chocolate together work beautifully with the banana." His recipe, which he says is "so simple to make", features four ripe bananas, 250g caster sugar, 125g unsalted butter, orange zest, two eggs, 250g plain flour, baking powder, and 75g dark chocolate chunks.

Before starting, you will need to pre-heat the over to 180c/160cFan/Gas 4, and grease and line your loaf tin with parchment paper. Next, mix together three bananas with the sugar and butter in a bowl, before adding in the eggs one at a time and beating well.

Hollywood then adds in the flour, baking powder and orange zest and gently folds it into the mixture before doing the same with the chunks of chocolate. Add the mixture to the tin then cut the fourth banana in half and press it onto the surface of the mixture.

The loaf will need to bake for 50-60 minutes. You can tell it is ready as it will be a golden brown colour and after inserting a skewer, it will come out clean. Make sure to let the cake cool for about an hour before serving.

When it comes to the orange zest, you can add as "much or as little as you want, really", the baker explains. The chocolate, meanwhile, can be any of your choosing, though Hollywood suggests a hardened tempered one as you don't want it to melt too much.

He uses chocolate chips in his banana loaf, but says you can also use a bar of your favourite dark chocolate.

When it comes to the final product, Hollywood says: "The chocolate is in there, the orange is in there, there's a strong whiff of banana, this is dying to be eaten. This is all about flavours, the orange and the chocolate together."

Hollywood shared his recipe via his TikTok account and the comments were filled with home bakers praising the loaf. One wrote: "Best banana bread I've ever tasted!!! Thanks Mr Hollywood."

Another said: "I halved the ingredients and made a small version. It was delicious. The best banana bread yet. Not at all 'rubbery' thank you."

Meanwhile, a third person posted: "It's gorgeous flavour of orange, chocolate with a hint of banana is wonderful. Thanks so much, another easy but moorish recipe."