What do crunchy banana buckwheat bars and the Easter hat parade at school have in common? My avoidance of craft and my affirmation that my contribution to school fundraising and activities comes best in the form of baking.
The table was packed with the usual suspects and some items I was actually a bit shocked by like bright blue sugar toffee lolly pops and bags of M&M cookies. It’s never a judgement thing, more a curiosity about how long we can go through life – sometimes the whole of life, never thinking about what was in stuff and how it affects us when we eat it. I know I did for 26 years before I started to have to join the dots due to health reasons. Often, when you’re not hit between the eyes with a health issue, knowing about additives, colours, refined foods and their potential ill effects can largely go unnoticed.
I’m often shocked by how I was able to be given the best education money could buy, and yet have no idea about the effects of junk food on my ability to thrive and concentrate. Funny isn’t it?
Anyway, back to the banana buckwheat bars. These are different to the seedy banana bites from a couple of weeks ago. These are crunchier, and therefore higher in sugars (dried banana and rice malt syrup). Something different which I’d suggest a little less often than as a daily go to, but still packed with lots of other great things.
It’s a nice big batch so if you’re a big family, no need to double batch, as it will do you 203 rounds of a family of 6-7.
Enjoy!
I hope you enjoy them as we did to today!
Real Food, Happy Bodies
As always tag me on instagram when you make them @lowtoxlife #lowtoxlife
| Cook Time | 25 minutes in oven |
| Servings |
14-18 bars depending on how you cut them
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Rate this recipe!
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INGREDIENTS
- 8 dried bananas (not banana chips, but dark brown, whole dried bananas. I buy from the bulk foods bins but Organic Mountain is a brand you can use too, or of course dehydrate overripe bananas you don’t want to use in the dehydrator)
- 1 cup pepitas / pumpkin seeds
- 1 cup desiccated coconut
- 1 cup buckwheat activated “buckinis” (I Adore the Loving Earth ones)
- 1/2 cup tapioca or arrowroot flour
- 1/2 cup rice malt syrup
- 150 g coconut oil
- 2 heaped tsp flax meal (or 1 egg if you prefer)
- 1 heaped tsp vanilla bean powder
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon*
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat your oven to 180C / 350F
- Blend on high the dried bananas to break them up into tiny bits. Then add pepitas and do the same thing. (Speed 8 20 seconds Thermomix for bananas and then 10 seconds for pepitas)
- Then add everything else and blend on medium-high until well combined (about 20 seconds and blender power depending, you might have to scrap down the sides at the half way point)
- Then line a baking tray with parchment paper and pour out the mixture onto the tray. Press into a slab, taking care to shape the sides as evenly and firmly packed as possible so you don’t have crumbly edged bars.
- Then pop in the oven. My test time-wise is as soon as you can smell the sweet spices wafting out of the oven you’re usually done. In this case it’s about 25 minutes.
- Take out and cut away 1cm from around the browner edges and then mark well what your bar shapes are going to be, while it’s still hot. Then cool and cut the bars, and pop in a container until you need them.
- To present? Wrap a strip of parchment over the middle and same with the ribbon.
RECIPE NOTES
Here are the GRAMS for weights measurement instead (Thank you lovely Glenda Gabriel for sending them through!)
250g dried bananas
150g pepitas
75g desiccated coconut
180g Activated Buckinis
60g Tapioca
170g Rice malt syrup
Comments 8
These are really yummy Alexx, thank you for sharing the recipe.
Thermomix measurements are:
250g dried bananas
150g pepitas
75g desiccated coconut
180g Activated Buckinis
60g Tapioca
170g Rice malt syrup
Author
Glenda you are a LEGEND for the grams! Glad you love them xx
Hi i was just curious if the buckinis are gkutenbfree and if not what would you suggest as a replacement 🙂
Author
They sure are – every single recipe on my site is gluten free x
*Gluten free
Any chance normal banana can be used or will it make it too mushy?
Author
Hi Rachel – Not for this one but make the seedy banana bites – they’re with fresh banana. x http://www.lowtoxlife.com/seedy-banana-snack-bites
Hi Alexx – these look awesome. Have you managed to find buckwheat that is grown in Australia? Would love to hear about that! I love the crunch and nutritional profile of buckwheat but cant bear to use it (even if labelled ‘organic’) when I can only ever find versions from China. I’m sure you’ll agree the food regulation there is not in line with a low tox life!