'The' Traybake Recipe

At each REAL Circle in The Log Cabin, I serve this traybake. I get asked for the recipe so often, I've decided to put it on my website. It is by no means 'my' recipe. It was adapted from a recipe shared with my by the LLL Leaders at LLL Farnham and Aldershot back in 2015, they had taken it from a Womens Weekly or similar. Either way, it's not the same as the original incarnation so I'll share my version below.

Oaty BananaTraybake

This recipe is vegan and free from many allergens. It's very adaptable and makes a great snack or tasty breakfast. My children also love to eat a tiny bowl of uncooked traybake mixture if I remember to keep some aside. I make a double batch for Circles. This amount makes one dish (about 12-16 pieces). It takes 5 mins to prepare, kids can help too!

Ingredients

• 3 very-ripe bananas*, mashed

• 50g oil (I use sunflower)

• 100g sultanas (or other dried fruit)

• 200g oats (can use gluten free oats for gf version)

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven 170 degrees C fan/190 degrees C/gas 5.

2. Mix together all the ingredients well.

3. Spoon into a suitable dish. No need to grease it, it comes out fine without greasing. I have used a rectangular brownie tin in the past, these days I use a round pie dish. If you spread it thinly it'll make more pieces but they'll need less cooking, otherwise it can dry out. I prefer a thicker slice, so it's moist inside and crunchy golden brown on top.

4. Bake for about 30 mins, or until golden brown on top.

5. Leave it to cool for about ten mins before slicing.

*A note about bananas: They need to be soft, which means they'll usually have lots of brown spots or be totally brown or somewhere in between. If your bananas aren't ripe enough, you could potentially heat the bananas to make them go mushy. Do not use under-ripe or just-ripe bananas for this, as it'll turn out really dry. If you've got brown bananas but you're not ready to make traybake, you can peel, break up and freeze them. Defrost when you're ready to bake. Frozen banana chunks are also great for smoothies or blitz to make 'banana ice cream'. I digress!

Storage: Best eaten whilst freshly baked and warm. Freezes well. Lasts in a tin at room temperature for at least a few days, but definitely best fresh! If it goes hard/dry after a few days, you can microwave a piece and/or spread a bit of chocolate spread and/or peanut butter on it to make it tasty again!).

Variations:

• Replace the mashed bananas with about 400g stewed apple, add some cinnamon or mixed spice and you've got a lovely spiced apple traybake. Delicious!

• Carrot cake version: Use a mixture of stewed apple and grated carrot in place of the bananas, add chopped walnuts and mixed spice with the sultanas.

• Use fresh or frozen blueberries instead of sultanas. Delicious but must be kept in the fridge to keep fresh.

• Many different oils work fine, preferably not something too flavoursome like extra virgin olive oil. If using coconut oil, melt first.

• Use muesli instead of oats if you like!

• Add seeds for extra crunch.

• Add chopped up chocolate if you want a chocolate banana traybake.

• Add peanut butter to the mixture if you want some extra crunch and protein. Also yummy with the chocolate version!