Banana, Date and Walnut bread with Dark chocolate

This is the perfect recipe for using up over ripe bananas

Recipe:

This recipe is based on Nigella Lawsons Gluten free recipe, but I’ve replaced the refined sugar with dates to make it slightly more Menopause friendly, although Dates still have a lot of natural sugar they are packed with fibre as well which will help with the blood sugar spikes.

So alongside bananas, walnuts, hazelnuts and very dark chocolate, this cake is very nutritious & full of fibre, but does have a lot of natural sugar, so should be eaten occasionally rather than daily !

Probably best eaten in the morning if you have a particularly active day ahead rather than at night.

You will need:

175g Rice flour

100g Ground Almonds

2Teaspoons gluten free baking powder

½ Teaspoon Bicarbonate of soda

¼ Teaspoon Sea salt

3-4 overripe Bananas

2 Teaspoon Vanilla extract

100g Full fat Greek yoghurt

2 large Eggs

125 ml Olive oil

125g Dates (boiled in 200ml water until paste)

50g Walnuts roughly chopped

50g Hazelnuts roughly chopped

100g Very dark Chocolate (85 % Cocoa solids)

Method:

-Preheat oven to 170 C (150 fan) and line a 2lb loaf tin (or 1lb if halving ingredients)

-Mix together the flour, almonds, bicarb, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside

-In a large bowl big enough for all the ingredients mash the bananas, add the date paste.

-Add the Vanilla and Greek yoghurt and one by one the eggs followed by the oil.

-Combine everything together well and scrape the sides of the bowl.

-Add the flour mixture and combine fully, then add the nuts & chocolate.

-Pour the mixture into the lined loaf tin and bake for 45-55 mins until shrinking from the sides and test with a skewer which should come out clean (if you can avoid the lumps of chocolate)

-Leave in the tin on a wire rack to cool completely.

-Remove from tin.

If freezing. Slice the cake and cover in cling film (double layer and put the slices in an airtight container in the freezer. Defrost thoroughly before eating.