You may or may not know that banana bread is honestly one of my favorite foods. This recipe in particular, has always been a favorite of mine, and up until last week it was my ultimate ride snack, travel treat, and edible security blanket – whenever I’m heading out for an adventure, banana bread seems to be the thing I bring with me to keep spirits high and bellies full.
So in the crammed pack days before leaving for our first trip in the new van (!!) making a few loaves of banana bread was on my to-do list. The trip will be a few weeks long, filled with ski adventures, bike adventures, and learning all about this new rolling vacation home. In short, many new adventures abound. And thusly, it felt appropriate to find a new way to banana bread too. This Chunky Cacao-Chaga Banana Bread was the result and not only do we have travel treats, ride snacks, and gifts to share with folx who let us park in their driveways, I also have new hands-down-favorite banana bread.
Packed with heirloom whole grains (like all of the things I bake,) and literally loaded with bananas, this not-too-sweet loaf also contains chunks of cacao nibs + candied ginger, great for settling stomachs, and is boosted with raw cacao and Chaga powder – two seemingly small ingredients that make a big difference in the flavor (and the nutritional function) of these fat, fabulous slices.
Here’s how chocolate is born: gorgeous cacao beans are grown along the equatorial regions of our planet, then they’re harvested, cracked open and their seeds are dried and fermented. Then they’re roasted and cracked open, revealing cacao nibs — this is the “seed” of what we know to be “chocolate.”
Those cacao nibs are then ground into cocoa liquor, and depending on the quality of your chocolate, they may be separated from the cacao butter (fat) in the seeds, or this component may be kept intact. The higher the quality of your chocolate, the less the cacao is messed with and parsed out. The lower the quality, the more inclusions and processing the cacao undergoes.
Cocoa comes from cacao nibs that are roasted at a ridiculously high temperature, separated from their cacao butter, and somewhat stripped of much of their nutritional benefit in the process. CACAO comes from nibs gently treated and dehydrated. Effectively cacao is the less processed and more virtuous version of “chocolate.”
You can enjoy raw cacao in powder form, which is what I’ve used here along with the raw nibs. It still contains all of the powerful, potent nutrients and minerals, and anti-inflammatory properties of cacao seeds. If you choose to use cocoa powder in this recipe, your banana bread will still be delicious, but it will lack many of the healthful, unique, and important properties of CACAO.
If you’re under the impression that banana bread is an oversweet sugar bomb, completely inappropriate or too decadent for an on-the-go snack, then we aren’t making the same banana bread recipe.
There’s no reason for banana bread to be overly fatty or sweet, and I deliberately design my banana bread recipes to be the opposite; full of flavor, with just enough fat to have a great texture, but also plenty of protein and carbohydrates to be even more powerful than any “energy bar.”
The potassium in the bananas helps with cramping when your body is in motion, and the hydration level of these cake-like-slices makes them easy to digest when you’re on the go.
PRO TIP: When fueling your activity, remember that having a snack with 20% hydration is important when you’re fueling your body in motion because, with a lower hydration rate, your body needs to draw water from your digestive system (or your energy drink,) to digest properly. This can lead to digestive distress, and dehydration — even when you’re drinking adequately for your energy needs.
One more thing: I like this bread as a snack on a long ride, hike or ski or as a mid-morning snack for sustained energy, but wouldn’t choose it for a high-intensity effort or trail run. The bread has lots of fiber in it (which helps moderate blood sugar,) which can be problematic when your digestive system is being shaken up, and when blood is needed in other parts of your body to push your limits. If you’re doing something high intensity, enjoy your banana bread as a post-workout snack or at least 1.5 hours before your effort or event.
Chaga is a mushroom. The fungus grows on hardwood trees in cooler forests in the Northern hemisphere and has been used for centuries all over the world for medicinal, ritual, and recreational purposes, specifically right here in North America by the Cree, Ojibway, and Denesuliné tribes. These native peoples have used Chaga to treat ailments such as joint pain, infection and to fight inflammation. Today these easy to identify black fungus are also used to reduce cholesterol, improve heart health, and for their antibacterial properties. I used it here as inclusion for all of those reasons, and also because I love the way the flavor plays with the cacao and rye.
You could drink Chaga mushroom as a tea, or stir it into your hot chocolate…but I love it in this bread. I love the Sun Potion brand powder, but there are many brands available. Be sure to purchase one that is made of pure Chaga mushroom without additives, and uses a gentle extraction.
I won’t get back on my soapbox about whole, heirloom grains this week. (If you’re new to Recipe Club, I highly recommend reading the past few recipes for PANCakes and Passion-Fruit + Coconut Porridge for a deeper dive into heirloom grains, why they’re the only grains you’ll find here, and why I’m so bonkers for them!)
If you haven’t already been convinced that aiming to get as many non-industrial flours into your diet is key then…maybe this banana bread will convince you! I use Dry Storage AP flour in this banana bread, as well as some of their Abruzzi Rye flour for more protein and fiber. You have just TWO MORE DAYS to use my code LENTINE 20 to stock up on these amazing flours! Fill your cart with amazing flours before March 26th to make it happen!
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