Yes, the following is better than peanut butter.
I know, you’re all rolling your eyes right now, saying, “How can anything (besides chocolate) be better than peanut butter?” Hear me out; this spread has the one-up on regular pb because it:
- is easier to spread
- is lower in calories (more about this at the end of the post)
- tastes sweeter, without any added sugar, and has a serving of fruit
Above, spread on top of Banana Bread for One.
Another bonus: This recipe doesn’t make as much of a mess as trying to smush sliced banana into a sandwich. As usual, the recipe is so simple that I feel a little silly writing it down.
Banana Butter
- 1 medium banana
- 2 to 4 tablespoons peanut butter, depending on how pb-y you like it (or almond, cashew, walnut butter, etc.)
- optional: I like to add a little cinnamon
My favorite ratio is 4 tablespoons peanut butter to 80 grams (without peel) banana (about 1/2 a large banana). And I often use a frozen banana, which makes this spread taste like peanut butter ice cream!
Procedure: Whir the two ingredients in your food processor or blender until smooth. Leftovers can be stored in the fridge. (If possible, it’s best to let the mixture sit for a few hours before enjoying, as the taste becomes more robust with time.)
Above, spread over a Breakfast Pizza Cake.
Other Ideas for Use:
This creation can be used anywhere you’d use regular peanut butter—warmed up and drizzled over oatmeal, as a sandwich spread, dip, or pudding, as a smooth-and-velvety topping for waffles or pancakes, on vegan ice cream, or simply eaten plain off a spoon (or out of the blender, depending on your level of self-restraint!).
As for calories… Ok, so I’m having a bit of a dilemma: Recently I’ve been getting quite a few requests from readers asking if I can add calorie counts to my recipes. I don’t count calories, but I know that a lot of you (readers and fellow bloggers) do count. So, since I really try hard to make my recipes—and my blog in general—suitable for everyone, and since it’s not hard for me to figure out the calorie counts anyway, I thought I’d ask: Do you want me to add calorie info to my recipes? Please vote; either way, I’m interested in hearing your opinion. And until I figure this dilemma out, here are the nutritional stats for the banana butter:
Banana Butter Calories:
Serving Size: 1 tablespoon (based on my favorite combination)
Calories per serving: about 40 calories
(As a reference, regular peanut butter has about 100 calories per tablespoon.)
Variations:
Yes, there is a chocolate version.
🙂
My favorite flavor of nut butter has to be bee’s knees by PB & C. AMAZING!
<3 jess
How about turtle butter? Pecans, chocolate and caramel… YUM!
Macadamia nut butter is Bomb. Creamy raw almond butter is wonderful as well, I don’t think there is a nut butter in existance that I would not be head over heels for. But I must say that though this post is called “Better than Peanut Butter?” I believe my ultimate fav is crunchy peanut butter
My favorite nut butter is white chocolate wonderful by PB & Co! So creamy.
I’m kind of in lurve with Justin’s Cinnamon Peanut Butter. You have not lived until you have eaten a bowl of oats with Cinnamon Peanut Butter and banana…. or a Cinnamon Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich…. or Cinnamon Peanut Butter and Banana Bread…. You get the point. 🙂
My favorite flavor of nut butter is peanut butter. Yum!! I love the salty goodness. I think a good imaginary flavor would be….um…..cinnamon peanut butter pumpkin. That would be so good!
I’m new to this magical world of delicous sounding nut butters — only regular almond butter and nutella (does that even count?) so far, but me-oh-my chocolately coconuty almond butter sounds delicious. This probably exists already. Must google. New to your blog as well — You make a vegan diet look not only do-able, but delicious!
my favorite nut butter out is the pb loco’s flavor of peanut butter and banana! reminds me of your recipe 😉
but my dreammm flavor would be a nut butter flavored with my 3 faves – chocolate, banana, and coconut..all together. wouldnt that be amaaazing?? 🙂
Please, please include the calorie count. Those of us on weight loss programs, and these days many of us are in this predicament, need to know that in order to balance taste and calories or we saboutage ourselves. The calorie count can be ignored by those who don’t need it but is a huge bonus for those of us who do. I love what I see on your site but will only try recipes that give a nutritional breakdown, including calories. Please don’t shut those of us with weight problems out. We like cooking yummy things too. The worls discriminates against us enough as it is. Thank you.
I completely understand your perspective (I count them, too), but it’s also important to realize that most of CCK’s recipes have multiple methods of preparation depending on personal taste and dietary restrictions. With options in the type/amount of sweetener, choice of milk, etc and also serving sizes vary by person, it’s impossible in most cases for her to give absolute calorie information. I use MyFitnessPal to track food and exercise, and they have a really handy section where you can enter and save custom recipes, so I’ve been doing that when I make CCK items so I know exactly what I’m getting and can alter the serving sizes accordingly. The app is free (Android and Apple) and you can also access online at myfitnesspal.com. I highly recommend it!
Back to the recipe at hand… I just tried this banana butter yesterday, and it was good yesterday morning but even better today! Love the idea. I used 1/2 banana and 2T Nature’s Promise creamy PB, and that made two very generous servings at about 130 calories each. I was lazy and just melted the banana in the microwave and stirred with the PB so the texture wasn’t as smooth as the photo, but will definitely be making this again! Thanks, CCK!
Peanut butter used to take first place but since I’ve discovered sunflower seed butter, peanut butter is only second best! My dream combination is sunflower seed butter plus carob or chocolate–delish! Only even more amazing with banana…and peanut butter…wait is that possible in one jar?! Let’s pretend it is!
Oo giveaway!!
But first of all, Happy Birthday! I hope you had a great day! what cake did you end up celebrating with?
As for nut butters, hmmm, all of those flavors look really good. I really want to try coconut butter but it’s always so expensive. Same for macadamia. I think something like coconut ginger would be really good.
I know I also mentioned I sometimes mix in fruit spreads or jellies with my nut butters so some really amazing concoctions I”ve made have been cashew butter/ apricot spread, almond butter and rose jelly from a middle eastern market, or almond butter with guava jelly. I love Sunbutter with agave too 🙂
Ok that was wayyy more than one flavor, but I hope it still counts as my entry!
My dream nut butter would be maple pecan butter because that is my all time favorite clif bar and i think it would be amazing. Or I would have dark chocolate almond butter. I love almonds and dark chocolate too. So hard to decide:o)
I just bought the new Maranatha Dark Chocolate Almond Spread and I have a feeling it will beat out Mighty Maple PB Co for my new favorite!
Dark chocolate almond butter is my all time fav!
I”m pretty sure I’ve already left a comment, but just to be safe…my fave is either Justin’s maple nut butter (oh holy yum!) or sunflower seed butter!
Yum I’m definitely going to have to try this…it looks like it was made to be eaten with oatmeal or oatbran!
My favorite nut butter is straight up plain old almond butter. Oh, and I’ve been eating this banana butter on toast every morning for the last week!