Peanut Butter Banana Bread with Dates, Nuts, Coconut Flakes & Chia Seeds

This morning, I noticed two crummy bananas sitting above my fridge and started thinking about banana bread. But I kind of wanted to jazz it up a bit. So I thought to myself, what flavor profiles would go well with these bananas? And my brain instantly went to Bananas Foster and that famous caramel flavor from the butter and sugar. I looked in the pantry and saw a bunch of dates and thought, perfect! Dates add a rich, caramel flavor to recipes and I knew they would be a great addition to this bread.

Then I started thinking about bananas and peanut butter, which as well all know is pretty much a match made in heaven. I decided my new favorite product, powdered peanut butter, was a must. My eyes traveled further into the pantry where I saw a bag of grated unsweetened coconut. Coconut and bananas equal tropical paradise so you know that was going in.

Somehow I figured all these flavors would go together well in my banana bread and luckily I was right. Oh, and don’t forget the chia seed. A last minute addition!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup sugar (if you like things sweet, feel free to increase to 3/4 cup)
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 medium)
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts
• 3 tablespoons powdered peanut butter
• 1/2 cup grated unsweetened coconut
• 1/2 cup chopped dates
• 1 tablespoon chia seeds
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan with cooking spray. In a large bowl beat together your sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Beat in your eggs. Stir in bananas, milk and vanilla until well blended.

In another bowl, mix together flour, nuts, baking soda, salt, nuts, powdered peanut butter, coconut, chopped dates and chia seeds. Add to the banana mixture all at once and stir until everything is just combined.

Pour into your baking pan and bake 45-50 minutes (mine was perfect at the 45 min mark) or until toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool for about 5-10 minutes and remove from pan. Cool completely (about one hour) and wrap tightly and store in the fridge.

This bread turned out really well. I took half to work and it disappeared in a flash. I loved all the flavor additions and think you will too. The fun thing about breads like this is you can add in all sorts of ingredients to your liking.

Chocolate chips, different types of nuts, fruits (dried pineapple, blueberries or cherries for example), nutella…you name it. Get creative and have some fun and happy baking!