I had my first request this week for something to bake, which was really exciting! We had a lot of overripe bananas left in our fruit bowl at work, and so some of the girls were wondering what to do with them rather than throwing them out. Then, they thought of me! I was happy to oblige by taking the bananas home and re purposing them into something delicious!

Whenever I have overripe bananas, I always seem to go to banana bread. I just love it so much! So I couldn’t go past an opportunity to bake delicious banana bread for the office. But I realised that lately I’ve been baking a lot of sweet things, and thought it might be time to cook something a little healthier. I mean, I can’t always bake sugar filled treats, as much as I want to. So I decided to try out a recipe for healthy banana bread, and see how it turned out.

This recipe was really simple, quick and delicious. It ended up being gluten free, dairy free and refined sugar free, which means that it is practically guilt free. I couldn’t believe how delicious it tasted given it didn’t have any sugar in the recipe, apart from the sugar from the bananas and a little bit of honey! It really surprised me that I can make something healthy that still satisfies my sweet tooth. And despite my concern that something so healthy wouldn’t go down well with my office crowd, everyone loved it! A lot of them loved it even more because they didn’t have to feel bad about eating it one bit.

There are a lot of ‘healthy’ banana bread recipes out there, but this one was quite simple, and didn’t involve too many ingredients you wouldn’t have on hand. It is based on coconut flour, which is becoming far easier to get, and the only other thing you needed was Almond Butter. But you could easily substitute this for peanut butter or any other nut butter. I also sprinkled cacao nibs over the top, but you could easily put anything over the top, like blueberries, raspberries, banana slices or sliced almonds. It’s completely up to you! You could even put chocolate chips on the top if you wanted to make it a little more naughty!

Guilt Free Banana Bread

Adapted From	Ambitious Kitchen
Serves	12 slices
Preparation Time	15 minutes
Cooking Time	25 minutes
Ingredients ·         4 medium ripe bananas, mashed up ·         1 tablespoon of honey ·         1 teaspoon of vanilla extract ·         ¼ cup of almond butter ·         2 tablespoons of coconut oil, melted ·         2 eggs ·         ½ cup of coconut flour ·         ½ teaspoon of baking powder ·         ½ teaspoon of baking soda ·         ½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon ·         ¼ cup of cacao nibs Method 1.      Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius, and line a loaf pan with baking paper, setting aside. 2.      In a medium bowl combine the bananas, honey, vanilla, almond butter and coconut oil. Using an electric mixer, mix the ingredients until combined and smooth. 3.      Add the eggs in, one at a time, on a medium speed until combined. 4.      Using a medium speed, mix in coconut flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt until completely combined. 5.      Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Scatter the cacao nibs over the top of the batter evenly. 6.      Bake for 25-30 minutes or until when a skewer is inserted it comes out clean. 7.      Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool completely. Slice into 12 even pieces.

And there you have it! It’s such a quick recipe and simple to make. And the result was really delicious, but very good for you. You won’t feel guilty going back for a couple of slices of this one, and I am sure you will want to! It is quite sweet surprisingly, but has a really nice coconut flavour, which I really liked. And using ripe bananas really brings sweetness so you don’t even need sugar!

You can enjoy this banana bread as it, it is quite soft and moist, but does hold its shape. Otherwise you can toast it in a sandwich press for a truly decadent experience. If it’s not sweet enough for you, you could always add some yoghurt and honey on the top.

Let me know if you would like to try this recipe yourself, and especially let me know if you give it a go!

Until next time, happy baking!

Ella xx