I made these last week, but completely forgot to put the recipe up, I made them the same day as the Mint Chocolate bars and probably didn’t want to look like a pudding fiend! I’m still using banana in my baking these days, I think it’ll take a little while for the novelty to wear off on me, it has been a LOOOOOONG time since I ate bananas remember.

With this recipe, you can use espresso or your usual favourite coffee, or even some of the lovely flavoured coffees you can get these days in the supermarkets (or so I’ve heard, haven’t seen any this neck of the woods!). You could also substitute the walnuts for almonds or hazelnuts, whatever you’ve got in the house that you fancy using up.

A friend of mine at the gym brought in a book last week for me to read, the other ladies have all read it, so I thought I’d give it a bash. It’s un-put-downable! It’s called Me Before You by JoJo Moyes. It’s not my usual genre of book, but I love the character development and it just makes me smile… and fill up with tears too, I won’t give anything away though!

I also love books that talk about other books, ie books the characters are reading and in this particular book they refer to short stories by Flannery O’Connor, so I had to google her and liked the sound of her writing (I’m so suggestible)  I found the book and bought it, so I’m looking forward to it coming now. They also mentioned The Red Queen by Matt Ridley, although that book itself didn’t really sound like my kind of thing I did find two of his other books Genome and also The Origins of Virtue to be quite interesting as I’m trying to broaden my mind and learn new things.

I’ll let you know how I get on with them!

Espresso & Walnut Squares (Vegan & Gluten Free)
MyInspiration Feel The Difference Range
Makes 9 Squares – Ready in 30 minutes

1 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 tsp baking powder (make sure GF)
1 small banana mashed
1/2 cup walnut finely chopped (plus 6 walnut halves crushed for topping)
2 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of nutmeg
3/4 cup non dairy milk (I used almond milk)
3 tbsp maple syrup
1 and 1/2 tbsp espresso/coffee (mixed with 100ml hot water)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius and line a 7″ square baking tin with parchment

2. In a mixing bowl combine the buckwheat, baking powder and nutmeg

3. In a separate bowl combine the mashed banana, almond milk, espresso and maple syrup and whisk together.

4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, throw in the 1/2 cup of walnuts and fold the mixture together (add a little more milk if the mixture is too sticky) before pouring into the baking tray, sprinkling over the remaining chopped walnuts and popping in the oven for 20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean). Remove from oven and allow to cool.