Nutrition
| Per 100 g | Per 1 oz (28 g) | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 411 kcal | 117 kcal |
| Protein | 10.7 g | 3 g |
| Fat | 22.2 g | 6.3 g |
| saturated | 8.3 g | 2.4 g |
| Carbohydrate | 36.2 g | 10.3 g |
| sugars | 14.3 g | 4 g |
| Fibre | 9 g | 2.6 g |
| Sodium | 173 mg | 49 mg |
Estimated from the ingredients, for the finished dried product. Actual values vary with the produce you use and how far you dry it.
Ingredients
- 1.7 kg ripe bananas (about 14 medium), sliced
- 2 1/2 cups peanut butter
- 2 1/2 cups oats
- 9 1/2 cups digestive biscuit cookies, crushed
- 2 1/2 cups cacao nibs
Instructions
- Use bananas that are heavily freckled and mash them into the peanut butter until no lumps of fruit remain. A lump of banana inside a bar is a wet spot that stays wet through the whole run.
- Stir the oats, crushed graham crumbs and cacao nibs together dry before they meet the wet mixture. Added separately, the crumbs soak up the banana unevenly and you get dry pockets.
- Work the two together until it is one stiff mass with no dry crumb showing. This needs pressure rather than stirring — a spoon will not do it and hands will.
- Shape it into a rectangle between sheets of waxed paper, pressing down hard. Air trapped in the slab is what makes the bars crumble when you slice them.
- Chill it overnight. The peanut butter has to set firm before this can be cut — attempt it warm and the knife drags the slab apart rather than slicing it.
- Cut the cold slab into 6 mm slices and lay them out flat with a little space between each. Slice them straight from the fridge, because the edges soften within minutes on the bench.
- Dehydrate at 60 °C for 6 hours. These are meant to end up like a soft cookie rather than a cracker, so they are done when the outside is dry to the touch and the centre still gives under a thumb.
- Cool them fully, wrap them individually, and keep them in the fridge for a week or the freezer for two months. There is real moisture left in these by design, and the peanut oil means a cupboard shelf is not where they belong.
