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?
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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 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup White Sugar
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1 Tbsp Blackstrap Molasses
1 Tsp Baking Soda
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
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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 Vitahas.
So I put the Blendtecto 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.
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…..
I love it. It looks so moist and almost fudgy! YUM must try!
I have just recently started following your blog. I am in LOVE with your recipes. I am a HUGE white chocolate peanut butter butterscotch brownie blondie truffle cookie fan! I am drooling just from the pictures! I was wondering if you have ever made any lemon bars before? I know I am a new follower, but I’d love to place a request for some lemon bars! OR peanut butter brownies with vanilla frosting maybe?!
You’re awesome!
https://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2012/04/pink-lemonade-freezer-bars.html
https://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/recipes/desserts <-- scroll down to the header "Brownies" and there's about 10 versions to choose from Thanks for reading!
I made your Peanut Sauce last night and it was wonderful.
Another suggestion if you don’t like under baked goodies is to bake it in a bundt pan.
I will have to try this recipe this weekend.
So happy you tried it and loved it!
I don’t have a vitamix, so I used my blendtec to blend the banana, apples, and peanut butter. Then I did the rest by hand. I also had to add about 2 TBS of water to the blendtec. I blended the banana and water first then added the apples and peanut butter. Thought I’d leave this comment incase someone else doesn’t have a vitamix as well. By the way Averie I found your blog a little over a week ago through a recipe someone posted on pintrest, and now I’ve been here EVERYDAY! I swear we have the same taste buds. I love everything I’ve made so far.
Thanks for finding me from Pinterest and trying out recipes (more than one it sounds like) and glad you enjoy them!
And yes, with regard to this bread, of course anyone can make it, with or without a high speed blender. You could mash it all by hand, with a small handheld mixer, with a blender, food processor, really, there is no “wrong” way. Of course you don’t “need” a Vitamix in order to make this for anyone reading without one! Thanks for your info on what you did to make it work for you and for reading!
It sure does work…just tasted and they are gooey and delish!! Even took a few to the postmaster! :)
I bet you made the postmaster’s day. That is so sweet of you!
I know this is a really old post but I just found it and have recently bought a Blendtec blender. Decided to give it a go today (I’m in the testing phase of my blender to see what all it can do) and I had no trouble mixing it all up in the blender (so you might want to give it another try…I didn’t have to shake, jiggle, tamper or anything) ….it is baking as I type and hopefully the in-laws like it for dessert after dinner tonight! Thanks for the recipe!
Good to know you didn’t have trouble AND that you made the recipe! This is one of my faves; it’s a very old post you’re right, but the recipe works :)
Hi Averie!
Just discovered your blog today while googling chia seed recipes :)
I am planning to buy my very first super-blender and am trying to choose between Vita-Mix and Blendec. So what is your conclusion after all? From this post it sounds like you prefer Vita-Mix, but maybe you’ve had other experiences since then….
Will try some of your recipes soon!
Have a great day,
Marianna
Vitamix all the way for me! I am a rep, see this link there’s a discount code. Have fun!
https://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/shop
hey, i am super excited i found this site- i am super concious about everything i eat- battling the tummy for my entire life and have ben diagnosed as Gluten/dairy intolerant. all your ideas look so delicious and wont hurt my scale too much-
i love to bake- i have my own mix of flours that i use for my receipes- i am interested in the pb bannana vegan soy/gluten free bread/cake you made and was wondering what your thoughts were if i used a differnet flour than the almond flour- i have brown rice(my staple), chick pea, oat, coconut, and white sorghum flour…. your thoughts on what would be the best substitute per equal measurements?
Adele
I am not really an expert on substitutions with specialty flours; my suggestion is to try it, get something that resembles banana bread batter, bake it til it’s done…taste test. And make changes as you deem fit. It’s so hard any other way with all the unique flours out there.
hi averie! do you think peanut flour would work for this instead of almond meal? i’m not really sure about the difference (other than the nut itself, obviously!)
you could try it…peanut flour is a different texture than almond flour and will absorb more liquid so if you try it, use somewhat less….good luck…
That cake looks really, really good. Bananas and peanut butter are like heaven.