Reading Time: 3 minutesEveryone loves a good WLC-compliant sweet recipe, and this is one that I personally make every challenge. It’s about as easy as baking gets, satisfies the sweet tooth without being addictively sweet, and even hits the chocolate spot.
One note I do want to make about this recipe and Challenge-compliant baking: it’s important to remember that almond flour is really just ground up almonds. While an occasional compliant treat is fine, if you get in the habit of baking with almond flour, you’re going to be ingesting a heck of a lot of almonds.
And too much of a good thing can sometimes be a bad thing. Almonds, and many nuts in general, can be pro-inflammatory (and high in calories). Just because they’re “legal,” doesn’t mean they’re harmless. So treat this “treat” like exactly that. Save it for special occasions (and share it over tea or coffee with loved ones so you’re not left staring at the leftovers).
Black Bottom Banana Bread
This recipe is about as easy as baking gets, satisfies the sweet tooth without being addictively sweet, and even hits the chocolate spot.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 c almond flour
- 1/4 c coconut flour
- 1 1/2 T baking powder don't just substitute baking soda - that requires an acid, which this recipe doesn't have
- 2 packs stevia
- 1/2 t salt
- 1 1/2-2 c very ripe banana**
- 1 t vanilla
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 c coconut oil melted
- 1/4 c cocoa powder
- 1/4 c cacao nibs
- 1/4 c macadamia nuts chopped
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit and grease a loaf pan with butter.
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In a large mixing bowl, combine almond and coconut flours, baking powder, stevia, and salt.
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In a mixer or food processor, combine bananas, vanilla, and eggs. While running, add melted coconut oil. If you just add to the bananas, the coconut oil will become hard again.
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When oven is heated, combine dry and wet ingredients and mix well.
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Divide batter in half and stir cocoa powder into one half of the batter.
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Stir cacao nibs into the chocolate half, macadamia nuts into the vanilla half.
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Pour chocolate batter into the loaf pan and spread evenly across the pan.
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Pour vanilla batter evenly on top of the chocolate batter.
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Bake at 325 degrees for an hour until a wooden skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean
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Let cool in the pan on a rack for about 10 minutes.
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Turn bread out of pan and allow to cool on rack for another 15-20 minutes before cutting.
Recipe Notes
The best, sweetest baking bananas are super ripe. The best way to achieve the best bananas is to wait until they are quite blackened, freeze for two days, then thaw. They will be black and wilted when thawed. When peeled, they will be coated in a syrupy, almost caramel liquid. This goes quite beyond the traditional "just use your ripe bananas" prescription. That will work fine, too, but this method will give you a nicely sweetened banana bread.
He graduated from UCLA with a BA in philosophy as well as a degree from the Southern California School of Culinary Arts, and feels food is one of the most important parts of a life - it can nourish, heal, and bring people together.
Michael believes health and well-being are as much a state of mind as they are a state of the body, and when it comes to fitness, food, and life in general, he thinks slow is much better than fast (most of the time). Stopping regularly to examine things is the surest way to put down roots and grow.
He knows he will never be done with his own work, and believes the best thing you can do for your well-being starts with loving and working from what you’ve got right now.
