Peanut Butter Banana Bread Vegan, Gluten-free if made using gluten-free flour

This is adapted from a Madeleine Shaw Recipe, but is a firm favourite in my household. I have made some adjustments. Firstly, I am not a fan of using so much coconut oil. A little is great, but we still don’t know the effects of overdoing it with this oil so I tend to err on the side of caution. I have used butter. Butter contains vitamins A and D as well as Butyrate that can keep our gut healthy. I also sometimes use an egg instead of chia seeds if I am not making it vegan.

Ingredients, serves 10

3 bananas, ripe

80ml maple syrup

125g peanut or almond butter

100g coconut oil, melted

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

80g coconut sugar

150g dark chocolate, good-quality, cut into chunks

200g spelt flour or gluten-free flour

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon chia seeds

Method

1. Turn the oven to 170C. Line a loaf tin with baking paper or grease with a little oil.
2. Put the maple syrup, ripe bananas, coconut sugar and vanilla into a food processor and mix well until combined. You can also do this in a bowl if you mash the bananas first.
3. Add the flour, melted coconut oil or butter, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and chia seeds to the wet ingredients and mix well in the processor or by hand.
4. Layer a third of the mixture into the loaf tin and dot with some chunks of dark chocolate and spoonfuls of nut butter. Add a third more mixture and repeat again, making sure that you have enough nut butter and chocolate for the top of the cake.
5. Cook at 170C for 50 minutes. This cake should be moist in the middle. Leave to cool for at least 10 minutes before removing from the tin or allow to cool fully with the tin on a cooling rack.

Alternative: For non-vegan you can add one egg instead of the chia seeds and butter instead of the coconut oil.