Chocolate Banana Cake Brownies (gluten-free, refined sugar free, dairy free)

I have made this recipe a few times now and each time have received rave reviews from all, including those that don't like desserts (really? this type of person exists?) and those that are only used to overly processed, high sugar desserts. I found this on one of my favorite blogs to get healthy recipes from and once again it didn't disappoint. It is a fun one for little ones to help you with. Jane's favorite part was smashing the bananas.

The original recipe did not call for frosting, but Jane didn't understand the idea of a cake without frosting so something had to be figured out fast. One of my favorite "frostings" to make is coconut butter. It is super simple, you just dump some unsweetened shredded coconut in a food processor and let it run for about 10 minutes (scraping the sides down periodically). It will turn into an almost liquid form and then you can drizzle it on the cake. Jane insisted on adding strawberries to it too so our dessert turned into a strawberry-coconut-chocolate-banana-cake. There was a lot of frosting so we put the rest in a jar and stored it in the fridge. Its perfect for smoothies, waffles, or just a bite here and there to satisfy a sweet craving.

Ingredients

Wet

• 2 eggs (can substitute with 2 tbs ground flax or chia seeds + 7 tbs water)
• 3/4 cup palm sugar
• 1/2 cup extra virgin coconut oil, softened
• 4 bananas, mashed
• 2 vanilla beans, 1/2 tsp vanilla paste or 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Dry

• 1 cup brown rice flour 
• 3/4 cup tapioca starch/flour
• 3 tbsp cacao powder or carob powder
• 1 tbsp ground flax seed
• 2 tsp gluten-free baking powder
• 1/4 tsp sea salt

• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, optional

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 350F and line 8×8 pan with parchment paper across both sides for easy lifting and set aside.
2. If you aren't using eggs, combine ground chia or flax seeds and water, set aside for 5 minutes.
3. In a large bowl, cream palm 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.