Recipe Review: TMX Chewy Banana Slice

[Depome]

Taken from a January TMX e-mail newsletter

Makes a 20cm square cake tin

Ingredients:
200g sun dried banana (took some finding........ but I think banana chips may be fine too)
100g sundried apple
100g almonds
100g hazelnuts
100g rolled oats
30g coconut
3 tbs fruit juice concentrate (I used orange and mango, not the apple or pear suggested in the recipe)
juice of 1 lime (i forgot!)
pinch of sea salt

Method:
Place fruits, nuts, oats and coconut into bowl and chop for 20 seconds on speed 7-8 until it looks a bit like breadcrumbs.

Add remaining ingredients and mix for 1 minutes on speed 9 until it starts to become a little sticky. Blend further if necessary.

Press into 20cm square baking tin and sprinkle with extra coconut if you wish. Use the measuring cup to press it down firmly. Refrigerate and cut into squares to serve.

Comments:
Despite what it says in the ingredients list (which I didn't copy perfectly), it clearly doesn't matter if your oats are rolled or 'quick cook' pieces, and if your coconut is dessicated or shredded. Just buy what's cheapest because it's going to get mashed anyway! Also, I didn't quite have enough hazelnuts but when I read it was going to get completely chopped, I decided to top up with hazelnut meal which I did have. I couldn't get apple or pear concentrate and I don't think it matters at all, unless you're avoiding high natural food chemical of course.

I tasted this before putting it in the cake tin, and while I really like it, I knew one of my children would be picky with it. So I added 50g of milk chocolate melts and gave them a quick blast with everything else. YOu can see bits of chocolate, so they're not quite as fine as the other ingredients. It certainly tastes sweater now, and less 'raw nut' which will make my Miss 8 happier The choice of juice will have changed the flavour too. So it's in the fridge setting at the moment, and I think it tastes great, took about 2 minutes to make (the directions were excessive I found, was quicker than that) and is going to be a fab raw snack in the lunch boxes this week

Photo:
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Member's Comments

Chelsea - I made the banana slice this afternoon.  Sadly it wasn't a hit with the kids even with choc chips.  I don't think the lime juice went at all well with these ingredients (and the ingredients are a bit too expensive for me to try again without it).  Worth a try though. The texture is nice but the flavour isn't crash hot.  I don't think I'm keen on the bananas either.

Depome - Infinitely improved by using:

dried apples
dried sweetened cranberries
dry banana chips (optional)
oats
almonds
coconut
orange and passionfruit Homebrand fruit juice concentrate

[Depome]

Incidentally, I've been making my own museli bars on and off for years now, with flour, oats, coconut, butter and golden syrup as the main ingredients, adding things like cashew nuts, sultanas, cranberries and rice bubbles for the flavours. They oven bake for about half an hour after mixing it by hand. But having mixed this in two minutes and it being ready instantly... I don't think I'll be baking any more museli bars! This is raw (as healthy as possible in this instance) very fast, and edible immediately. I guess refrigerating will help it to keep its shape, and is probably important for me in Qld having added some chocolate.

[Chelsea (Thermie Groupie)]

Looks yummo!!!  Would love to give it a go.  Where did you end up finding the sun dried banana? What consistency was it - crunchy/soft? 

[Depome]

I got the banana from a local shop, Budge Natural Foods who seem to order things in bulk (prob from Brisbane) and then sell in different sized packets, all pantry-type ingredients. They sell a lot of chemical free, sundried, and organic produce. Sundried bananas look disgusting and I won't be able to tell my Miss 8 that I put them in there because she saw the bag of them yesterday and had a hissy fit! But as I said, I think the dried chips would be fine, though they are sweetened and all sorts.

They aren't crunchy, but not totally soft either. They are a bit chewy but the size of the nuts/oats makes it like eating a seed-based museli bar. They are blitzed so fine that they cut up really easily too, which is great because it's hard to cut museli bars with big pieces of nuts in them, and even sultanas sometimes.

I really recommend the chocolate component There's not a lot in mine, but it made quite a difference to the sweetness, and took the edge off the hazelnuts and raw oats.

[judydawn]

Charlesworth nuts sell sundried bananas - I love them.  Are they everywhere or just in Adelaide?

[Depome]

I've never heard of them.

For size perspective, and to see what the texture must be like:

[cookie1]

Clever taking that photo.  They look really nice close up.

[meganjane]

They do look interesting! Thanks for that.
Depome, would you mind sharing your muesli bar recipe? I've been trying to make them for years, and just haven't managed to find one that isn't too crumbly or cakey.

[Chelsea (Thermie Groupie)]

I found dried bananas in our village's little organic farm shop this morning - who would have thought!! I'm going to make this slice this arvo. 

[Depome]

Meganjane, it's a from memory one :-S

2 cups oats
1 cup flour
1 cup coconut

Combine 150g butter and 1/4 cup golden syrup and melt. Then add to the dry ingredients.

You can add fruit and nuts of course, but you may need more flour and/or fluid to help it bind.

Press it into a slice pan and bake at moderate temp for about 20-30 mins. Score it with a knife before letting it cool in the pan. Then you can slice it properly.

[Chelsea (Thermie Groupie)]

I made the banana slice this afternoon.  Sadly it wasn't a hit with the kids even with choc chips.  I don't think the lime juice went at all well with these ingredients (and the ingredients are a bit too expensive for me to try again without it).  Worth a try though.   

[Depome]

I'm glad I didn't add lime juice to be honest; I don't know why it's been added TBH - preserving? Preserving colour?

Next time I'm going to do way less hazelnuts (which I love, but the girls don't) and swap them for cashews. I'm going to swap the banana too as I think that's the flavour that I'm not liking in them. I have plenty of apple left so might add cranberries to that. I think it's a good basic recipe and principle that should be easy to modify.

[Chelsea (Thermie Groupie)]

The texture is nice isn't it but the flavour isn't crash hot.  I don't think I'm keen on the bananas either. 

[Thermomixer]

Thx for reviewing Depome.  Not sure that I want to try it now ?

[Depome]

Just swap any flavours that you're not sure about MrT. I reckon it's a good base to work with. TBH, it isn't "chewy" as it is called, so the bananas wouldn't be any loss.