This nut bread was actually an experiment that turned out extremely well. As I was sorting through my baking ingredients, I found several open bags of nuts, all just scraps. Didn’t want to throw them out though. I could have just put them in a bowl and snack my way through it, but I figured that I could use them in a recipe.

Lonely ripe banana

There was also this lonely, overripe banana lying in the fridge. Yes, you read that right, in the fridge. I always keep banana’s in the fridge. Although there are tips on how to keep bananas from getting brown and turn from green to overripe overnight, like wrapping cling film around the crown, none ever works very well. It prolongs the suffering maybe for just one day. Keeping them in the fridge does not prevent them from getting brown, but it does slow down the ripening process significantly.

Brown skin, but tasty banana

Even though the banana will turn brown, inside it keeps fresh a lot longer. Obviously it does ripen, but it really takes a lot longer. Check out the pictures below. The skin is all turned brown. Yet upon opening it, you can see it has ripened, but hardly any mushy dark spots.

Perfect little nut bread

So I had all those nuts and an overripe banana. It doesn’t happen a lot, but I didn’t want to make a banana bread. Not the soft and sweet kind anyway. And then this thought hit me: I could try to make a nut bread. But the more bread type of bread. Okay, that does sound strange. But I’m sure you get the picture. I didn’t want a ‘cake’ type of bread. First thing to get on the right track: leaving out eggs. Then I simply started by mashing up the banana and adding stuff that popped in my mind. And there it was: the perfect little nut bread. Even though it’s made with banana, you don’t taste it at all. This will please banana bread haters, even my husband liked this bread.

Ingredients

100 g mixed nuts*

1 ripe banana (medium)

30 g corn flour

20 g oats**

1 tbsp hazelnut oil***

1 tsp (gf) baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

25 g sunflower seeds

1 tbsp chia seeds

Optional: 1 tbsp psyllium husk****

*I used pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts and almonds.

**Use certified gluten free if necessary.

***Any other oil works fine as well.

****Psyllium husk is optional, but it does give the bread a more bread like texture and keeps everything together.

Instructions

Preheat oven to 160°C and grease/line a mini loaf pan.

Put the nuts in a blender of food processor and just pulse a couple of times. You could also roughly chop the nuts with a knife.

Mash the banana.

Add all ingredients and knead it into a dough.

Put the dough into the loaf pan and bake ca. 40 minutes.

That’s all there is to it. I absolutely loved it! This nut bread is great with anything. Sweet spreads, jam, peanut butter, cheese, ham, sausage etc.

Enjoy!