The trail snack you have been asking about, and the thinking behind it
There is a moment on most of our day hikes, usually somewhere around the halfway mark when legs are starting to talk, where the snack bag comes out and everyone goes quiet for a few minutes.
That is the banana bread doing its job.
I have had more messages about this recipe than almost anything else we do. So here it is, along with a bit on why it is built the way it is, because the reasoning matters if you want to adapt it.
Why we do not just buy a loaf
Walk into any cafe and the banana bread on the counter is essentially cake. White flour, a lot of sugar, industrial seed oil and very little else. It tastes good, gives you a quick lift and then drops you about forty minutes later, which is a problem when you still have eight kilometres and 400 metres of climbing in front of you.
What you actually want on the trail is a snack that releases energy slowly, sits well in the stomach when you are working hard, and gives your body something useful to do with it. That means protein and fat alongside the carbohydrate, not carbohydrate on its own. (note: your fuel requirements do change when moving into higher output exercise – a steep climb, carrying a heavy pack or running, or at high altitude. In these situations higher carb and low protein/fat foods are best).
This version is built around almond meal and eggs rather than wheat flour, which changes the macronutrient profile. You get protein and good fats in every slice, the sweetness comes from ripe banana and a small amount of honey rather than refined sugar, and the walnuts and dark chocolate add more fat and a bit of substance to chew on.
It is also grain free/gluten free and easy to make dairy free, which covers most of the dietary considerations that come up across a group. And in can be made nut free by replacing the almond meal and coconut flour with 1 ¼ cups buckwheat flour.
The practical benefit is that it holds together. Wrap a slice in paper, put it in the bottom of a day pack under a jacket and a litre of water, and it is still a slice several hours later rather than a bag of crumbs.
Ingredients
• 3 eggs
• 3 overripe bananas, mashed
• 1/3 cup organic yoghurt (use coconut yoghurt for dairy free)
• 2 tbs coconut oil, melted
• 2 tbs organic unrefined honey
• 1 tsp vanilla extract, or 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste or powder
• 1 cup almond meal (freshly ground)
• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate, roughly chopped (we use 85% Lindt)
Method
1. Pre-heat a fan-forced oven to 180°C.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs. Add the mashed banana, yoghurt, coconut oil and honey and combine well. For bonus points, mash two of the bananas and chop the third into 6-8 pieces. Those chunks stay intact through baking and give the loaf a much better texture.
3. Add the vanilla, almond meal, coconut flour and baking powder and combine well.
4. Stir through the walnuts and dark chocolate.
5. Pour into a lined 1 litre loaf tin and bake for 50-55 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
6. Allow to cool for 10-20 minutes before removing from the tin.
Delicious eaten cold as a snack in the mountains, or heated with a wedge of organic butter.
A few notes from making this a lot
Use bananas that look past it. The blacker the skin the better. Underripe bananas will leave the loaf bland.
Coconut flour is thirsty. It absorbs far more liquid than any other flour, which is why the quantity here is small compared to the almond meal. Do not be tempted to swap the ratio around or add extra to firm up the batter, because you will end up with something dry.
Why grind your own almond meal just before baking? This might seem like an unnecessary step when one can easily purchase ready-to-go almond meal. Almonds are about 50% fat, composed of mono- and poly- unsaturated linoleic acid. The polyunsaturated fats are sensitive to oxidation once the almonds have been ground into a meal, exposing these fats to air. This is no good for flavour and health. Solution – grind your own meal just before use.
Do not skip the cooling step. Almond meal loaves are fragile straight out of the oven and will fall apart if you try to turn them out hot. Give it the full twenty minutes.
Go dark on the chocolate. At 85% you get the flavour without much sugar, and it holds its shape better in a warm pack than milk chocolate does.
It freezes well. Slice the loaf once it has cooled completely, wrap the slices individually and freeze them. Pull one out the night before a hike and it will be perfect by morning.
Where it fits on a big day
On a full day in the hills, aim to eat something small every 60 to 90 minutes rather than one large stop. A slice of this around the halfway mark works well, and it pairs sensibly with water that has electrolytes in it rather than plain water on its own.
Fuel and hydration are two of the things people most often get wrong on their first serious day out, and both are easy to fix once you know what you are doing. We cover all of it on our day hikes, along with everything else that makes the difference between a hard day and a miserable one.
Come and try a slice on the trail. It tastes better at altitude.
See upcoming day hikes
Book a discovery call
The Mountain Tribe choc walnut banana bread
The trail snack you have been asking about, and the thinking behind it
There is a moment on most of our day hikes, usually somewhere around the halfway mark when legs are starting to talk, where the snack bag comes out and everyone goes quiet for a few minutes.
That is the banana bread doing its job.
I have had more messages about this recipe than almost anything else we do. So here it is, along with a bit on why it is built the way it is, because the reasoning matters if you want to adapt it.
Why we do not just buy a loaf
Walk into any cafe and the banana bread on the counter is essentially cake. White flour, a lot of sugar, industrial seed oil and very little else. It tastes good, gives you a quick lift and then drops you about forty minutes later, which is a problem when you still have eight kilometres and 400 metres of climbing in front of you.
What you actually want on the trail is a snack that releases energy slowly, sits well in the stomach when you are working hard, and gives your body something useful to do with it. That means protein and fat alongside the carbohydrate, not carbohydrate on its own. (note: your fuel requirements do change when moving into higher output exercise – a steep climb, carrying a heavy pack or running, or at high altitude. In these situations higher carb and low protein/fat foods are best).
This version is built around almond meal and eggs rather than wheat flour, which changes the macronutrient profile. You get protein and good fats in every slice, the sweetness comes from ripe banana and a small amount of honey rather than refined sugar, and the walnuts and dark chocolate add more fat and a bit of substance to chew on.
It is also grain free/gluten free and easy to make dairy free, which covers most of the dietary considerations that come up across a group. And in can be made nut free by replacing the almond meal and coconut flour with 1 ¼ cups buckwheat flour.
The practical benefit is that it holds together. Wrap a slice in paper, put it in the bottom of a day pack under a jacket and a litre of water, and it is still a slice several hours later rather than a bag of crumbs.
Ingredients
• 3 eggs
• 3 overripe bananas, mashed
• 1/3 cup organic yoghurt (use coconut yoghurt for dairy free)
• 2 tbs coconut oil, melted
• 2 tbs organic unrefined honey
• 1 tsp vanilla extract, or 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste or powder
• 1 cup almond meal (freshly ground)
• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate, roughly chopped (we use 85% Lindt)
Method
1. Pre-heat a fan-forced oven to 180°C.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs. Add the mashed banana, yoghurt, coconut oil and honey and combine well. For bonus points, mash two of the bananas and chop the third into 6-8 pieces. Those chunks stay intact through baking and give the loaf a much better texture.
3. Add the vanilla, almond meal, coconut flour and baking powder and combine well.
4. Stir through the walnuts and dark chocolate.
5. Pour into a lined 1 litre loaf tin and bake for 50-55 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
6. Allow to cool for 10-20 minutes before removing from the tin.
Delicious eaten cold as a snack in the mountains, or heated with a wedge of organic butter.
A few notes from making this a lot
Use bananas that look past it. The blacker the skin the better. Underripe bananas will leave the loaf bland.
Coconut flour is thirsty. It absorbs far more liquid than any other flour, which is why the quantity here is small compared to the almond meal. Do not be tempted to swap the ratio around or add extra to firm up the batter, because you will end up with something dry.
Why grind your own almond meal just before baking? This might seem like an unnecessary step when one can easily purchase ready-to-go almond meal. Almonds are about 50% fat, composed of mono- and poly- unsaturated linoleic acid. The polyunsaturated fats are sensitive to oxidation once the almonds have been ground into a meal, exposing these fats to air. This is no good for flavour and health. Solution – grind your own meal just before use.
Do not skip the cooling step. Almond meal loaves are fragile straight out of the oven and will fall apart if you try to turn them out hot. Give it the full twenty minutes.
Go dark on the chocolate. At 85% you get the flavour without much sugar, and it holds its shape better in a warm pack than milk chocolate does.
It freezes well. Slice the loaf once it has cooled completely, wrap the slices individually and freeze them. Pull one out the night before a hike and it will be perfect by morning.
Where it fits on a big day
On a full day in the hills, aim to eat something small every 60 to 90 minutes rather than one large stop. A slice of this around the halfway mark works well, and it pairs sensibly with water that has electrolytes in it rather than plain water on its own.
Fuel and hydration are two of the things people most often get wrong on their first serious day out, and both are easy to fix once you know what you are doing. We cover all of it on our day hikes, along with everything else that makes the difference between a hard day and a miserable one.
Come and try a slice on the trail. It tastes better at altitude.
See upcoming day hikes
Book a discovery call