Bananas + Chocolate = the best. + Bacon = even better. I had some aging bananas that needed to be eaten, so I decided to make banana bread – one of my favorite things to eat! However, I don’t really like to eat anything made with nuts, almond flour or anything coconut. I am terrible at being Paleo, I know. I finally came up with the idea to make some Banana bread with a twist – chocolate & bacon. The ingredients kept coming to me, piece by piece, and I finally put the recipe together. However, upon eating this “bread”, I decided they were too moist and delicious to be called bread. So I changed the name to brownie, which most people like better anyways. Recipe is below!

Paleo Banana Chocolate & Bacon Brownies

[Nut free (if not adding almond butter), dairy free, grain free, sugar free, soy free.]

Ingredients

• Wet Ingredients
• 4 very ripe bananas
• 2-3 eggs (I used 3, and my brownies turned out a little eggy… so 2 might be better to use)
• 4 Tbsp bacon fat (or you could use coconut oil, but bacon makes it taste 7892632 times better)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp almond butter (optional)

• Dry Ingredients
• 1/3 cup cacao powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2-3 tbps tapioca/arrowroot flour
• 2 tbsp chia seeds (optional)
• pinch of salt
• 4-5 bacon strips, extra crispy

Instructions

Pre-heat oven to 375 F. Cook your bacon strips on the stove top & gather the leftover bacon fat. Once the bacon is cooled down, put the strips in a plastic bag and smash to pieces. Set aside for later. Combine 3-4 tablespoons of the fat with the bananas, and mash up as much as you can. Grease a glass pan (I used a bread pan, you could use an 8×8 brownie pan) with the leftover bacon fat, making sure a little is left on the bottom of the pan (**This is necessary, because your brownies soak up the extra bacon fat. yum). Combine the rest of the wet ingredients with a mixer (or blender). There still might be some banana chunks left over, but that’s ok.

Mix all of the dry ingredients together and slooowwwly add to the wet ingredients. I say slowly, because your face will be engulfed in a cloud of cacao powder if you try to mix everything in at once. I know, from experience. Mix in half of the bacon bits into the bowl. **If you added chia seeds, let them soak up a little of the moisture before baking. Pour batter into pan (I used a bread pan and 2 mason jars, for eating chocolate bacon heaven on the run) and top with the remaining pieces of crushed up bacon.

Place in oven and bake for 25-35 minutes, being careful not to over cook. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes (psh, who does that??), topping with (optional) chocolate chips, maple syrup or honey. I honestly don’t know how many people this serves, but when creating the recipe, I put that it serves 8. Macros/Calories per serving are posted below. Enjoy!