Chocolate Banana Cake Bars

April 28, 2012 by Leanne Vogel August 15, 2014

Vegan and gluten-free chocolate banana cake, portable and snacktastic!

Ingredients

Wet

• 2 tablespoon chia seed, ground + 7 tablespoon water
• ¾ cup coconut sugar
• ½ cup extra virgin coconut oil, softened
• 4 bananas, mashed
• 2 vanilla beans, ½ teaspoon vanilla paste or 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Dry

• 1 cup brown rice flour
• ¾ cup tapioca starch/flour
• 3 tablespoon cacao powder or carob powder
• 1 tablespoon ground flax seed
• 2 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon sea salt
• ½ cup chopped walnuts, optional

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350F and line 8×8 pan with parchment paper across both sides for easy lifting and set aside.
2. Combine ground chia and water, set aside for 5 minutes.
3. In a large bowl, cream coconut sugar and coconut oil with a hand or stand mixer for 3 minutes.
4. Add mashed banana, vanilla and chia mixture. Set aside.
5. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk all dry ingredients. Once combined, add to wet mixture and mix with hand or stand mixture until incorporated.
6. Add walnuts if using them.
7. Drop batter into prepared pan, flattening out as best you can.
8. Bake until golden, 40-50 minutes, or toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove from the oven, slide out of baking pan and place on a cooling rack for 30 minutes.

Notes

Because these bars are gluten-free and vegan, the consistency isn’t exactly the same as a regular cake. The end result is fully cooked, not mushy, but somewhat elastic-like, I believe from using ground chia. Kevin and I both really enjoyed them. The longer they sit after being baked, the less elastic-like they become.

Nutrition Information Per Serving