Banana-Date Health Nut Bread.

This bread was concocted in anticipation of a carbo load before a half ironman distance triathlon this coming weekend. I baked the bread last Sunday afternoon and froze it ready-sliced in anticipation of my busy week. I will however admit to a sneaky “preview” slice just to check it was yummy!

I invent recipes; so feel free to amend the following ingredients as preferred.

Ingredients:

• ½ cup chia (whole) seeds
• ½ cup psyllium husks
• ½ cup coconut flour
• ½ cup oats (gluten-free)
• ½ cup pumpkin seeds
• ½ cup mixed nuts or any nuts of choice – walnuts and pecans work especially well
• 2-3 teaspoons gluten-free baking powder
• Generous pinch sea salt
• 1-1.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 ripe bananas
• 1 duck egg (my preference or a large hen’s egg if you prefer)
• ½ cup dates
• Water to desired consistency

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200 ° C/ 400 ° F
2. Grease and line the bottom of a 2lb bread tin with greaseproof paper.
3. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl (chia seeds, psyllium husks, coconut flour, oats, baking powder, sea salt, ground cinnamon).
4. Place the pumpkin seeds and nuts in the NutriBullet or blender and roughly blitz. You still want for there to be some coarsely chopped nuts and seeds present so that your bread has some ‘bite”.
5. Add the nuts and seeds to the dry ingredients and mix well using a fork.
6. Place the bananas, duck egg, dates and a dash of water in the NutriBullet or blender and pulse for a few seconds to loosely mix.
7. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix through adding more water until you have the consistency of a bread dough mixture; it shouldn’t be too dry or too wet. The psyllium husks and coconut flour tend to soak up the water so check your consistency after a few minutes and add more water as necessary.
8. Transfer all to your bread baking tin and press down well.
9. Bake at 200 ° C/ 400 ° F for approx. five minutes and then lower your temperature to 180 ° C/ 350 ° F and bake for another approximately 45 + minutes or until a knife comes out barely clean. It is better to under-bake this gluten-free bread as it will dry somewhat over the coming hour.
10. Enjoy!!

I eat this slathered in real Irish organic butter, coconut oil or almond or cashew nut butter; I am a true fat burner in my training and so I do include fats in my race and endurance preparation as it suits me well. I also struggle to achieve the calories needed and especially in the day before endurance events and so the fats assist my calorie intake hence permitting carbs to be utilised in glycogen storage.