Hello, my name is Angela and I hoard black bananas.
(Eric made me tell you this today.)
Every time I go to the grocery store, I head straight for the ‘Reduced’ produce section just so I can see if there are any bananas that I can save. I see people passing by perfectly good bananas and I want to leave a sticky note on the bananas saying ‘I’m great for BANANA BREAD!’ or ‘try me in a GREEN MONSTER!’ and then hide behind the bins to see their reactions. I’m afraid they would ban me from my beloved grocery store and that would never be a good thing for a food blogger.
When I finally admitted to Eric that I had a problem, I agreed that the bananas were beginning to pose a health risk to all parties involved. I had several spotted bananas on the counter and a stash of black bananas in a paper bag in the fridge.
Over 10 of them…solid black and starting to leak juices.
When Eric exposed my stash of bananas in the paper bag I knew it would all be over soon if I didn’t take action.
But health risk or not, these babies are at the PEAK of their lives! Yesterday morning, I celebrated by making a chocolate chip banana cake. It would taste so delicious our heads would spin.
Because you really can’t screw up a banana cake when using bananas that look like this…
It’s just not possible.
Rustic Chocolate Chip Banana Oat Cake with Peanut Butter Banana Glaze
Yield
8-10 servings
Prep time
Rest time
15 minutes
Cook time
Total time
This rustic looking banana cake blew our socks off with an intense banana flavour and sweet bites of chocolate. It has a wonderful chewy texture from the oats and a little bit of crunch from the nuts. You’d never guess it has just two tablespoons of oil and it can easily be made gluten-free by using GF oats!
Ingredients
For the cake
- 2 cups regular oats, processed into a flour
- 1/2 cup regular oats (not processed)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed firmly
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/8th tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/16th tsp ground cloves (optional)
- 2 tbsp cane sugar (or regular white)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 2 tbsp coconut oil, melted (or other light tasting oil)
- 2 medium very ripe bananas, peeled
- 1/3 cup applesauce
- 1/4 cup almond milk
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- Fold in: 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips; 1/4 cup walnuts, chopped; 1 ripe banana, cut into chunks
For the PB Banana Glaze (makes 2/3-3/4 cup)
- 1 ripe banana (but not too ripe, you still want it solid!)
- 2 tbsp peanut butter (I used White Chocolate Wonderful flavour)
- 1/2 cup icing sugar, sifted
- Pinch of kosher salt, to taste
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C) and lightly grease a 8 inch (4 cup) casserole dish or 8” cake pan. Take 2 cups of regular oats and process them in a food processor until flour like in consistency.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (processed oats, regular oats, sugars, spices, baking powder, and salt).
- In another bowl, mix together the oil, applesauce, almond milk, and vanilla. Add in the two peeled bananas and smash into the wet ingredients until smooth.
- Add the wet mixture to the dry and stir until just combined. Now fold in the chips, optional walnuts, and the chopped banana.
- Spread into prepared pan and bake for 36 minutes at 350°F (175°C) or until a toothpick comes out clean. The cake must be cooled for at least 15-20 minutes before attempting to remove.
- Once fully cooled, slice and top with PB Banana Glaze (see below). Store in the fridge for up to 3 days (without Glaze).
- PB Banana Glaze: Mash banana in a bowl until smooth. Add in peanut butter and mash until combined.
- Sift in the salt and icing sugar and stir until fully combined. Makes about 2/3 cup glaze. Store in fridge in a sealed contained for 1-2 days.
Tip:
The great thing about this recipe is that I used regular oats and processed them into a flour, so this recipe can be easily made gluten-free if you use GF oats.
It also contains just 2 tbsp of oil, but it is a very moist and flavourful cake. The unsweetened applesauce and ripe bananas replace most of the oil in this recipe. This is not your average banana cake by any means.
it takes just 10-15 minutes to throw it together and pop it in the oven.
Add wet to dry:
Fold in chopped banana, chocolate chips, and nuts:
Scoop into baking dish or cake pan.
My sister Kerrie gave me this baking dish on the weekend! Does she know me or what? I’m in love. :)
Bake for 36 minutes at 350F or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 15-20 minutes so it can firm up and set otherwise it will fall apart when you try to get it out.
While you are waiting you can make the delicious glaze.
After cooling, slice and serve!
This rustic cake turned out so much better than I thought it would, especially because I just winged the recipe by the seat of my pants. The result is a dense, moist, and extremely flavourful cake with a lovely chewiness from the oats and nuts.
Oh, and the bites of banana are out of this world!
If you want to make this into a dessert, serve it with the PB Banana Glaze.
If you want to make it into a breakfast cake, you can leave out the chocolate and use more nuts. Or just leave in all the chocolate! ;)
Eric said this one is ‘in the vault’…
Oh and I still have about 7 black bananas to use up….what to make….
Are you a banana fan? What are your favourite meals or recipes that include bananas?
Angela,
Lol at the thought of you lurking in the banana section trying to get people to buy black bananas. I can just see the look on your face. Great post!
yes I’m a creeper. ;)
Oh wow, Angela, this cake looks amazing! I am making this as soon as I have bananas that are ripe enough.
While visiting friends one weekend, I brought a banana for breakfast and set it on their counter. I was excited for my morning oatmeal because the banana was at the perfect level of ripeness, in my opinion. I came down for breakfast in the morning, and the banana was gone! My friend said he threw it away because it was “rotten.” (What?!??! No such thing! ha.) It was still sitting on the very top of their trash, so I retrieved it and ate it anyway. Bananas must not be wasted. :)
LOL!!!!!
This sounds so good! And that first photo of the dish with a piece missing is gorgeous. It looks like it’s straight out of a magazine.
I love bananas! In breads, cookies, banana cream pie (!!! I would love to see you make a healthy version of Banana cream pie. It is my favorite!), oatmeal, sandwiches, in smoothies, etc.
This looks so fabulous and perfect for Valentines Day :)
This looks so far beyond YUM that I have no words – lol. This bad boy is getting added to my stash of recipes – pronto!
All our favorite things combined together! Chocolate, banana, PB.
Nicely done.
(Also, really like that last picture. Your photography is great.)
thanks :)
Please send ASAP!!!! :)
I have to confess that from ages 3 until 21 I did not like bananas as a fruit – at all. I did enjoy my mum’s homemade banana bread, but that was about it. Then at university there were only 3 fruit options at the dining room – bananas, oranges, or apples. Apples – nice but only so many you can eat per week, and oranges I love but not really a grab and go fruit when you’re heading to class. So bananas were back – and now they’re a daily thing. Love them! I am definitely putting this on my to do list this week! Just need to get the ones in my fruit bowl to be more yellow than green :)
My sister and I are both guilting of the “bananas leaking juices” addiction. I can’t believe some people toss their bananas when they turn black. They must not know the banana goodness they’re missing out on!
I love this. My bananas go bad quickly – so I pretty much bake anything with bananas everyday. I baked a Banana Bread last night with choco-chips…I really didn’t need to eat half of that on SuperBowl Sunday…ergh. So good though!
I also love that your ingredients are all healthy and wholesome – but your not afraid to use sugar where needed! I tire of “substitutions” and reading that certain things should be avoided entirely. It gets obsessive.
My bananas always had the same fate, but I bought them greenish in the store!! In the end, there was very often a need for emergency banana bread —- UNTIL I found out the neat trick to just peel the bananas, cut them into pieces, and then freeze them in a ziplock bag! Works like a charm, and I can clunk the frozen banana pieces right into my blender for a green monster.
Just imagine, now you can rescue EVERY banana ;-) (you might just need a bigger freezer..)
Yes I freeze bananas all the time to GM and banana soft serve..it works awesome! I dont like how the really black and soggy ones freeze though (they seem to turn icy), so I try to bake with them instead. :)
I made a chocolate chip banana loaf last night for my future hubby and used up my stash of black bananas too! :)
I’m a health nut myself. I’ve been called a tree hugger too behind my back. What they don’t realize is that I consider that a compliment. I would definitely agree that this is a healthy banana bread, especially if one used all or mostly organic ingredients. I’m going to try it sans the peanut butter glaze. I use peanuts very sparingly in my baking, because I find their flavor overpowering. Don’t get me wrong, I like peanuts as much as the next gal and eat them by the handful.
Almonds or other nuts besides peanuts are much healthier for you anyway so you could perhaps try another nut you love?
Yowsa! I’ve never seen bananas that black! Oozing juices? Oh boy ;)
This recipe looks amazing – beyond amazing, actually! I’m a sucker for the old standby, banana bread. I make it without any sugar though, and since I’ve had to completely cut it out of my diet, it is the perfect “dessert!”
Ha! I just started following your blog a couple weeks ago and love it! I too live in Ontario, I’m hoping not in the same town cause we could cause quite a scene in the produce section fighting over ripe bananas! My husband and family make fun of my banana farm/store in my kitchen. I have bananas of varying ripeness cause I am obsessed with the fruit! I like to eat them on their own when they are a little green, but for smoothies they need to be in the brown spotted stage and finally, I am the queen of banana bread and require black bananas for that 5 loaf a week project! You are not alone–but it’s funny that the same people that complain about our obsession are more than happy to sample the baked goodies that result! Too funny! BTW, I just got that same bakeware this weekend–I love it! Now I have the perfect project to try it out with–thanks for your great ideas!
hi angela,
thanx for this great recipe :-) your blog is so much fun & inspiring and I really enjoy all your recipes. maybe it’s possible that you could mention the size of your baking dishes/cake pans you use – would be soooo nice :-)
haha i love your hoarding techniques!
YUM. I am totally trying this recipe when I get home tonight. Honestly, I could probably live on strictly bananas for the rest of my life. I adore them. I get anxiety when we don’t have them in the house…luckily my husband knows my level of craziness and so he will often come home with a bunch of them, and then everything is right with the world again ;)
alright…no doubt about it that I am making this. I luv bananas and with Peanut butter especially so this is perfect for me. It looks so good and I like how you served it. I also have been known for black bananas. :)
ooh I’m soo trying this, I agree with you on the bananas they are best when black, my boyfriend always peels and freezes them when they just start to spot and I get so mad!