Chocolate PB Banana Bread

Healthy Holiday Edition

Reasons to love and make this;

1. High protein thanks to protein powder, nut butter and eggs.

2. No added sugar (the only sweetness comes from bananas here).

3. Grain/gluten free.

4. Raw cacao powder provides a good amount of minerals and antioxidants while giving us a dark chocolate hit! WINWIN

5. Easily adaptable - can add chopped nuts, chocolate chips, banana slices, berries, coconut etc. Any type of nut or seed butter can be used.

6. No faff - all ingredients added to a food processor at once then baked...simples!

What say you….In? OK!

Raw cacao, nut butter, and bananas come together to make this dark chocolate high protein bake. No added sugar and high in nutrient dense wholefoods, this healthy take on banana bread can be enjoyed with some more nut butter/tahini, yogurt and berries, jam, or naked. Also can be reheated for 10 seconds in the microwave.

Ingredients

• 1 & 1/2 cups mashed over-ripe banana (about 4 small)

• 1/2 cup nut butter of choice

• 3 eggs

• 2 scoops vanilla protein powder (see note below)

• 1/2 cup raw cacao powder

• 1 tsp baking powder & baking soda

• 1 tsp cinnamon

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 1/4 tsp salt

• Optional (but highly recommended!) topping - dark chocolate chunks

Method

Makes 10 slices (160kcal p/slice)

1. Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees C

2. Mash and measure out the banana, you want to make sure you have enough and that they are very ripe to provide the sweetness (you could always add other sweetener of choice but I've purposefully made this one more of a not so sweet dark chocolate bake).

3. Add to a food processor along with all the other ingredients and process until it forms a smooth batter (it will be a fairly thin consistency that you can pour).

4. Line a loaf tin with baking paper and pour in the batter.

5. Optional - add a topping of dark chocolate chunks, nuts or sliced banana.

6. Bake for 40-45 mins, until a knife comes out clean (Keep an eye on it after 40 though to make sure the top doesn’t burn).

7. Leave to cool before slicing - I divided it into 10 slices. Freeze and reheat if keeping for more than 3 days.

Notes:

*I used a stevia sweetened vanilla whey protein which also added a little sweetness but wasn’t much for the whole batter - have not tested it with different types of protein powders. If you use a plant based protein powder you may have a slightly thicker batter and dense bake.

*Chocolate flavour protein powder would also work well.

*This recipe specifically uses raw cacao power, regular cocoa powder is a stronger flavour so may be more bitter. If using try starting with half the amount 1/4 cup instead?

*I also used a peanut and coconut nut butter blend so it wasn’t overly ‘peanutty’ taste wise - you could sub this with any nut butter of choice!

Let me know if you give it a go and any variations used! Happy Baking!