ALMOND BANANA BREAD

makes 1 loaf tin 

This one is a very nutrient dense banana bread. Not the kind of moreish light & fluffy banana bread we all bake now and then. This one is a banana bread for the rock chicks. Something we’d be eating before an intense workout or on long hiking trips for slow energy release. Packed full with flavour too.

It doesn’t have any sugar added, but ingredients provide more than enough of natural sweetness. It is also naturally gluten free and high in fibre. A keeper in my books.

Ingredients:

• 2 large super ripe bananas, roughly mashed (or 3 medium ones)
• 4 eggs
• 1 full cup ground almonds
• 1 Tbsp gf baking powder
• ½ cup flaxseed
• ½ cup mixed seeds
• small handful cacao nibs 
• 1 tsp ground cardamom
• 1 Tbsp Ceylon cinnamon
• zest of 1 lemon
• 2 Tbsp melted coconut oil

Method:

A quick word on spices. Or a trick that works for me, whenever you want to bake things without sugar - load them with spices that our brain naturally associates with sweet things - vanilla, lemon zest, cardamom, cinnamon, you get the idea. In this recipe I added cacao nibs as an extra dimension of flavour too. It all worked beautifully well at the end.

1. Just mix everything together and let it sit for 30-40 minutes, which in general is a good rule if you bake anything with flaxseed. It needs a bit of time to soak moisture in, resulting in a better texture of a final product.
2. Transfer the mix into a lined/oiled loaf tin and send it into a preheated oven.
3. Bake for 50 mins at 180C/fan.
4. Once out of the oven, let it cool down for an hour before cutting in. As time goes by, flavour will develop more.
5. Enjoy!