Saturday, January 24, 2009

Chocolate Fix: Eggless Banana Bars


Now, don't get me wrong. I have absolutely nothing against vegans or the whole vegan agenda, I just like me some meat, lots and lots of cheese and more meat. Heck, my favourite meal is roast chicken with tons of beer! I also like calling vegan baking "eggless" instead of vegan - that's how much in denial I am about the positive side of veganism.

These "eggless" banana-walnut-chocolate chip bars are the best things I've had in a while, they actually taste like soft, moist banana brownies but without all the seemingly evilness of regular brownies. The recipe comes from a website called Cookie Madness (yikes!) and they have a TON of vegan baking recipes on there. These bars are really easy to make and would serve as energy bars or a healthy dessert with some vanilla ice-cream.

Eggless Banana Bars

Yields about 15 bars (2x3 inch bars)

2 large, ripe bananas (mashed)
2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
1 tablespoon ground flax
3 tablespoon hot water
2 tablespoons margarine or butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup dark chocolate chunks
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Line a 8-inch square pan with aluminum foil and set aside.

Pulse the old-fashioned oats in a food processor until they look coarsely ground.

Mix the ground flax and hot water together and stir until a paste forms, this will be your binder. Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, mix the flour, ground oats, sugar, salt, cinnamon and baking soda together.

In a separate medium bowl, mix together the mashed bananas, applesauce, ground flax mixture, melted butter and vanilla.

Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and pour in banana mixture. Using a wooden spoon or a hard spatula, mix everything together until well combined. The mixture will be quite dry, make sure you mash the bananas well.

Add in the chocolate chunks and walnuts and stir to combine.

Spoon the batter into the prepared tin and bake at 350°F for 25 minutes. Cool in pan for 15 minutes, remove and cool completely on a wire rack.

Cut into 15 bars.

5 comments:

aleta meadowlark said...

Well they certainly sound good. Gnu makes these banana walnut high fiber bar things, and this sounds pretty similar. How appropriate are they for the Super Bowl?

Eh, I don't really care. That's probably when I'll make these anyway. =)

Anonymous said...

These look really good! Never occurred to us that you could use something high in moisture content like bananas to be a binder. This has us thinking about other combos! Just a question though...how is it vegan with butter? Thought no animal products would be allowed?

Diana said...

Those look amazing! And so does that goat cheese, thyme stuffed chicken from an earlier post. I'm so glad I stumbled upon your blog - I am loving all your recipes! :)

Amanda said...

duodishes: Vegan butter! :) which is actually just margarine - I used something called saffola, and I'm not vegan except my boyfriend has crazy dairy allergies. Oh the woe of cooking w/o cheese...

Iris313 said...

I'm not vegan, but I'm always looking for a great and healthy recipe -- I can't wait to make these. Thank you for sharing (and I sort of agree with the meat and beer, although meat, cheese, more meat and beer is good too!)