We loved this tasty Banana, Walnut and Chocolate Loaf recipe from Acu, the British Acupuncture Council’s magazine.
The recipe is from Di Shimell who says “This very simple loaf if really tasty and sweet, although because it has no sugar it does tend to sink a bit. For a bit more lift, replace the date syrup with 100g sugar.”
Ingredients
- 75ml melted coconut oil
- 200g walnuts or pecans
- 200g rolled oats
- 4 ripe bananas
- 100ml maple syrup or honey
- 100ml date syrup
- 100ml milk
- 1.5 tsp baking powder
- 75g dark chocolate, broken into small pieces
170C / 150 fan / Gas Mark 3
Method
- Grease a non stick tin
- Roast the walnuts for ten minutes while the oven warms and then chop roughly
- Blitz the oats in a food processor until fine as flour
- Put the oats in a bowl and mix in the baking powder
- Blitz the bananas, honey, date syrup, milk and melted coconut oil together in the food processor
- Add to the oat flour, mix well and stir in the walnuts
- Pour half the batter into the baking tin, cover with broken chocolate, then pour the rest of the mixture over the top
- Bake for approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes, and when a skewer comes out clean, leave to cool on a wire rack.
What are the health benefits?
What are the health benefits?Coconut oil: The potential benefits seem to be endless with the inclusion of strengthening your immune system, aiding digestion, improving bone health, and preventing disease affecting the liver and kidney
Walnuts: Walnuts are the king of nuts when it comes to health benefits. Research suggests that walnuts have cancer fighting properties, offer multiple vascular benefits to people with heart disease, have rare and powerful antioxidants, improves reproductive health in men, and supports brain health.
Rolled oats: A common healthy breakfast option, rolled oats as part of an overall healthy diet could lower the risk of heart disease. The possible health benefits of oats also include: reducing the risk of coronary artery disease, lowering levels of cholesterol, and reducing risk of colorectal cancer.
Bananas: Bananas have been considered one of the healthiest options of fruit consumption for many years due to its impressive nutritional content. This includes vitamin C, vitamin B6, riboflavin, folate, pantothenic acid, and niacin. Bananas also deliver a significant amount of potassium, manganese, magnesium, and copper.
Date syrup: A fantastic alternative to refined sugar while giving you the health benefits of dates. These delicious fruits contain oil, calcium, sulfur, iron, potassium, phosphorous, manganese, copper and magnesium which are all beneficial for health.
Dark chocolate: Experts have found that chocolate is good for the heart, circulation and brain, and it has been suggested that it may be beneficial in such major heath challenges as autism, obesity and diabetes. And in fact, the latest research suggests that eating chocolate is good for your brain helping with better cognitive function.
Nutritional Information from:
