What do you do with your over ripe bananas? The first thing that comes to mind for me is banana bread, right? I’m sure pancakes, muffins, and smoothies are something that come to mind also. Whatever way you use them, I feel like they are such a versatile ingredient and I like to explore the not-so-traditional ways of using a ripe banana (you must try my Chicken Banana Curry recipe, it’s an unusual one, but I guarantee you’ll love it).
Why are ripe bananas good for baking/cooking? They are softer and easier to blend into a batter or sauce. As the banana ripens, the fruit converts starches to sugars, making them sweeter and that banana flavour really shines. They’re just perfect for a natural sugar hit! Bananas are filled with antioxidants, potassium and contain soluble fibre making you feel fuller for longer – I find these brownies are the perfect after-dinner sweet treat.
A couple of years ago I was a bit bored of making the same things with banana and wanted to do something different and have finally gotten around to sharing this recipe with you. I was going through a phase of experimenting with different ingredients in brownies (zucchini is another one, I’ll share that recipe soon). This brownie recipe is perfect for babies and toddlers that you are just introducing to the world of chocolate as they are 100% refined-sugar-free (using naturally sweetened choc chips) and great for us adults for this reason too! What also makes them great for little mouths is that they are softer than your usual brownie but still get that gooey, fudge-like chocolate vibe.
I only use a few ingredients in this recipe. One if them is peanut butter. Be sure to use a brand that doesn’t have any added sugar or oil – you want 100% peanut! Peanut butter is a great plant based protein that contains magnesium, Vitamin E and Vitamin B6 which are all great for growing bodies and great for our health in general. Honey is another ingredient (you could substitute with maple syrup), an egg to bind and some baking powder to leaven the brownies out slightly. Vanilla extract is optional, but I find it adds more of a homemade flavour overall.
If you’d like the recipe for Thermomix, you can find it here.
Blissful Banana Brownie
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-natural peanut butter
- 1 cup mashed bananas
- 1 egg
- 3 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup pure honey can use maple syrup
- 1 tsp natural vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 2/3 cup chocolate chips naturally sweetened
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C and line your brownie baking pan with baking paper.
- In a mixing bowl, add all the ingredients except the chocolate chips. The mixtureshould be nice and thick,
- Once all ingredients are combined well, add the chocolate chips.
- Spread the brownie mixture onto your lined pan evenly and smooth it out on top.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes depending on your oven (the brownies should look barley set in the middle).
- Remove from oven and allow to fully cool before slicing.
Notes
- Use ripe bananas.
- To keep this recipe refined sugar free, use naturally sweetened chocolate chips. You could also go dairy free.
- You could use an alternative nut butter if you like but ensure it’s all natural containing nuts and salt only.
- This brownie mixture is a lot thicker than your traditional mixture. Bake until the middle looks barely set – you want a gooey fudge-like texture.
- Because these brownies contain fresh banana, store in the fridge. They can be frozen.
