Vegan Peanut Butter Banana Bread (Gluten/Soy-Free)

Happy Monday Morning to you!  How was the weekend?  What all went down?  I had a really great day Saturday because my sister came to Phoenix for a one-day visit.  It was soooo awesome to hang out with her and I posted some cute pictures of us, too.

Sunday I went to a Pumpkin Patch with my hubs and Skylar.  She loved the horses, pumpkins, and the hay ride.  It was 102 F so we only lasted about an hour, but here's a few pics from our day.

I love this one because her eyes are the color of the beads on the turquoise necklace she's holding

And if you missed My Highlights of the Week post where I recapped some raw vegan desserts from the past week, check that out, too!

 

Moving onto the Vegan Peanut Butter Banana Bread...
Recently, I had seen Janetha make a great banana bread based on Veggie Girl's Recipe and it got my thinking about making a banana bread or cake of my own.  I scoured the internet for various vegan, gluten, and soy free recipes that didn't add any additional oil or margarine and really wasn't finding what I wanted so finally decided just to create my own.  Necessity is the mother of invention, right?

Averie's Peanut Butter Banana Bread (Or Banana Cake)
3/4 c Oats (that I ground into oat flour)
1 c Almond Flour (or 1 c almonds that you grind)
3 Large Ripe Bananas (Optional: reserve approx 8 little slices for garnishing your loaf or cake)
1 Peeled & Cored Apple (Med to Large)
1/2 c White Sugar
1/2 c Brown Sugar
Dash Vanilla Extract
1 Tsp Baking Soda
1 Tbsp Blackstrap Molasses

Everything went into my Blendtec

And I tried to blend all those ingredients together.

But Technical Difficulties Stuck Big Time with the Blendtec.  It wasn't able to mix the ingredients.  I tried self-mashing the already super soft bananas with a wooden spoon to try to give it some help.  But I guess this wasn't the right machine for this recipe.

I do like the openness of the Blendtec's canister for easy food removal, but for this recipe,  I was in need of a tamper stick like the Vita has.

So I put the Blendtec to rest...

...And transferred the entire mixture into the Vita-Mix.  You can imagine that this transfer and the extra cleanup really generated some choice words from my mouth.  I'll let you use your imagination.

Now in business with the Vita, I blended the whole thing in 20 seconds flat...

...And the mixture was looking and tasting (finger-licking) good!

But, then I added 1 c (1 generous cup!) of Peanut Butter.  Which just upped the delish factor.

Blended Again

Poured the mixture into a bread pan (9 x 5) **see caveat below.  Garnished with a few banana slices (that I reserved from the 3 large bananas as noted in the recipe).   And baked at 325 F in a Convection Oven for 1 hour.

After an hour, I took it out and let the loaf cool.

During that hour, I wanted to reach into my oven and devour the whole thing because between the bananas, the vanilla extract, and the peanut butter, it smelled beyond amazing in my house!

Here's an up close shot of the finished product.  Can you see the ridic amount of moistness this bread has??

Or try this one on for size

For me, a dessert is not worth eating if it's dry!  I am really pleased with the moistness of this bread which really ended up being more like a banana cake.  If you like really ooey-gooey desserts and are a fan of underbaked treats because you love the moistness, then look no further than this recipe!  Plus, it's not overwhelmingly peanut buttery which for some people, is a good thing.  If you want it overwhelmingly PB'ish, then just add more PB!

One critique I will give myself is this...the loaf was on the verge of getting too brown on the outside before it was cooking through completely on the inside.  If you're a fan of slightly underbaked treats, no worries, make it in the loaf pan, you'll be in heaven.

**Caveat: But, I think for optimal results because of the density and richness of the batter (3 bananas, 1 c of PB, and 1 c of almond meal will do that to a recipe!), use a 9 x 13 pan and bake at 325F for approx 40 minutes, but start checking it at 30 and you may have to go til 50 minutes depending on your oven and how well-done you like your breads or cakes.  

Let's just say this dessert is long gone.  Less than 24 hours later, the whole thing vanished.  Wonder how that happened?

VeganMofo in the house today.
  

Yoga Today is Ardha Sirasana (Half Headstand).  Go into full headstand and then carefully lower so that your legs are parallel with the floor.  If you want well-defined abs, this pose will help you get them!  Holding your legs 90 degrees from your body while fighting gravity is a sure-fire way to help increase your core strength.  Core strength is so important for everything from balance to remaining injury-free and as a benefit, your abs will look better,

Tip of the Day: Remember my friend Shannon I met up with earlier in the week?  Well she is having an AWESOME Give Away...go check it out!



Also there's a green eco-friendly Give Away you can check out...


Or if that's not your speed, maybe Fair Trade Olive Oil is.


What's your favorite cake or bread?  I have to say growing up, mine was banana bread.  But going gluten/soy-free and vegan puts a damper on most traditional recipes, banana bread included.  So I created my own!   So tell me all about what makes you say yuuummm!  I may just veganize and raw-ify it on the blog!


Stay tuned for 4 ingredient (and 45 second) homemade hummus.....