I never used to like banana bread (or bananas, for that matter) but now I can’t imagine life without either of them. I hope you find yourself in a similar position after you make this banana bread. This is great as an accompaniment to a hot beverage or, because it’s refined sugar free, as breakfast (which can also be consumed with a hot beverage). To conclude, it’s great at any time of the day with any sort of hot beverage.
Timing: 1 hour 15 minutes, plus cooling
Ingredients
75g pecans
1 tablespoons maple syrup
3 ripe bananas (the riper they are the more sweet they will be, as well as being easier to mash)
2 eggs
150g coconut sugar or brown sugar
2 tablespoons almond butter
150ml milk
120g ground almonds
100g plain or buckwheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
Salt
Method
1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°c.
2. Put the pecans onto a baking tray with greaseproof paper (use a piece of greaseproof paper that you can also use for the banana loaf). Break up a few of the pecans so that they’re different sizes. Pour over the maple syrup, sprinkle over a pinch of salt and stir until they are all covered in the maple syrup. Put into the oven for 10 minutes, then take out and allow to cool while preparing the banana bread. Turn the heat down to 160°c.
3. In a large bowl, mash the bananas, then add in the sugar and the eggs. Beat with an electric whisk for a few minutes until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is smooth. It may take a little longer if the bananas didn’t mash very well.
4. Add in the almond butter and milk and whisk again until combined.
5. Add in the ground almonds, plain or buckwheat flour, baking powder and salt and whisk again.
6. Once all is combined, fold in the slightly cooled pecans.
7. Pour into the loaf tin (mine is a 2lb tin) lined with the greaseproof paper we used for the pecans and cook for about 60 minutes. Start checking whether it’s cooked at about 45 minutes. You’ll know it’s done when a knife comes out clean when inserted into the middle.
8. Allow to cool for about 15 minutes in the loaf tin, then turn out onto a cooling rack. Allow to cool for another hour or so before cutting a slice, or three…