BBB: Banana Bread Brownies

This week I finished off my Monday and was craving a bit of baking. I’ve said this before, but for me baking is my way to switch off. It really makes me stop for a moment and just focus on one thing, which is quite therapeutic I find. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how much I do and where I find time to just stop and relax. Even when I’m in front of the TV I’m still doing a few other tasks, and I find I rarely give myself time to just stop and do something completely mindless. I keep meaning to do so many things like go for a walk, or read a book, or take a bath, but I just don’t allow myself to do them. Perhaps I feel like they are too indulgent, or that I won’t get anything else done. But at least with baking, I still feel like I’m achieving something, and that there is an outcome.

So when I was feeling a bit stressed on Monday night, as most people do after a Monday, I decided to give myself the time to do some baking. After all, what’s better for stress than some delicious baked goods? Probably some wine and baked goods, but hey!

So when I was thinking about what to bake, I realised that we seem to have a constant supply of overripe bananas in our apartment. My partner always wants to buy them, but as he’s often not home or skips breakfast, they don’t get eaten as quickly as they should. This is actually great for me, because there are so many things you can do with bananas when it comes to baking! Plus when it has fruit in it, it’s healthy…right?

I found this banana bread brownie recipe that sort of inspired me to try something new. I’ve tried cooking healthy banana bread brownies before but they sort of turned out like pancakes. These were also quite dense themselves in the end, but were super delicious! I didn’t go full healthy this time round because life is too short right? And I think brownies have to have chocolate in them, so I added in some giant chocolate chunks (this was out of laziness with breaking up the chocolate bar, but what you gonna do).

These Banana Bread Brownies were absolutely delicious. The brown sugar and melted butter gave them a real caramel flavour which paired really well with the banana. I think it was a good amount of sugar to have in there too as they weren’t overly sweet, just the right amount. I definitely recommend adding in the chocolate too, because life is always better with chocolate, and I think it really added to the flavour of the brownies. You could also add walnuts if you wanted a bit of extra crunch.

I loved how easy these brownies were to make. You simply chucked everything into a bowl and away you go. You don’t even need a stand mixer for these, you could just as easily make them using a wooden spoon and a bit of elbow grease. You know how much I adore a simple and easy one bowl recipe due to my hatred of washing up, so take my word for how great these were for minimal clean up!

This recipe is also great if you are running short on time because they are prepared so quickly. Once they are in the oven you can set and forget until they are ready, and then you have delicious brownies ready to go! They would be perfect to take for a picnic or any other gathering where you need to bring a plate, and I reckon they would definitely be crowd pleasers. I took these to work and I got serious brownie points (get it?) from those who tried them. It was my first time bringing in something I baked, so I’m glad they worked out!

As I said, we’ve got a surplus of bananas. I’d love to hear what you use your extra bananas for – do you have any recipes?

Until next time, happy eating!

Ella xx