Banana & Almond Bars
This is an alternative recipe to flapjacks. We found all flapjack recipes contained butter and sugar. We tried a few flapjack recipes substituting the butter for oil but they did not hold together.
In this version the natural sweetness comes from the bananas and the dates. The bananas bind it all together.
Ingredients
2 large, ripe bananas
125g dates (buy dates without the stone)
60g walnuts
60g blended linseeds or pumpkin seeds (you can buy this already done in health food shops, there is a good brand called Linwoods)
225g small oats
125g flaked almonds
Method
Heat the oven to 200 degrees centigrade. Place the flaked almonds into the oven and toast until golden brown. Take out, leave to cool and reduce the oven temperature to 180 degrees.
Mash the bananas until very soft. Chop the dates into small pieces (size is not so important, but they need to be fairly small). Roughly chop the walnuts, and mix together all of the ingredients except for the flaked almonds.
To bake these bars you need a 22x22cm (9x9in) glass or ceramic baking dish. Lightly grease the dish with olive oil.
Evenly spread the flaked almonds onto the bottom of the dish, and then press the oat mix over the top. Press down firmly with your hands as you need the almonds to stick and to ensure a compact biscuit.
Bake in the oven for 30 mins.
Leave to cool completely, before cutting into squares. If you have used a metal baking tray, then you will need to turn out onto a board, to prevent scratching the tray with your knife.
