Snickers Banana Bread (Vegan GF)

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A deliciously light and moreish banana bread with one chocolate batter and one peanut butter batter swirled together. Spread thick with peanut butter frosting and topped with homemade mini-Snickers bars, this is one chocolate and peanut butter banana bread combination.

I am so excited to get 2021’s Banana Bread Challenge off to a bang with this Snickers Banana Bread. As in 2020, each month, I’ll share a brand-new banana bread flavour (and base recipe) as part of the challenge – I always love hearing what you think of them. Last year saw so many new favourite bakes and now this is a new one to add to the list.

We all know that chocolate and peanut butter are a great combination. However, rather than simply creating a chocolate and peanut butter banana bread, I thought I’d go one step further and bring in the Snickers element that we all love with the mini bars on top – plus the thick peanut butter frosting.

This Snickers Banana Bread is made up of 3 components:

Mini Snickers bar: no-bake chocolate bars with a peanut butter nougat style base, a date peanut caramel topped with roasted peanuts and coated in chocolate
A swirled banana bread: one chocolate batter and one peanut butter batter
Peanut butter frosting: a classic buttercream with added peanut butter

The end result is this deliciously indulgent and fun yet fairly wholesome Snickers Banana Bread – that is naturally vegan with gluten-free options. Depending on the chocolate you use, it also happens to be refined sugar free, too.

A few top tips when making the mini-Snickers bars:

Prepare the mini-Snickers bars the day before: it is best to make up the bars the previous day, allow the nougat base and caramel to set before covering in chocolate and leaving in the fridge overnight or until needed.
Mini moulds: to make my Snickers bars even and small, I used a silicone tray mould from Amazon, and I made roughly 35 small bars.
If you don’t have mini moulds: make this into one larger Snickers with the base, caramel and roasted peanuts. Once set, slice into bars and then cover in chocolate.
Make them into cups: you can also use cupcake moulds to make these into chocolate cups, just use the same recipe and method.

How to make the Snickers Banana Bread:

Have all your ingredients ready: this really speeds up the process.
If using GF flour: make sure to use a recommended 1:1 blend with xantham gum.
Have two mixing bowls on the go at once: while both the batters are very similar, they differ right from the start of mixing, so it’s best to make the two batters at the same time.
OR, make the batters one after the other: if that’s too confusing, make up the chocolate batter then the peanut butter batter before transferring them to the loaf tin.
The batters will be thick: if they are too thick, add 1-2 tbsp more plant-based milk as needed.
To make the swirls: spoon in the batters, alternating between the chocolate and the peanut butter one until they have been used up – no need to be neat about it. Then roughly swirl a knife through and smooth over the top.
Bake until golden: bake for 30 minutes, then cover with foil and bake again for roughly 15 minutes until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

That’s all there is to this Snickers Banana Bread – it may look impressive but as long as you plan out your time and think ahead, it’s really simple. Once baked whip up the peanut butter frosting (vegan butter/margarine, peanut butter and icing sugar) and spread it thickly over the top! Decorate with your mini-Snickers bars, some extra peanuts and chopped chocolate and serve it with tea or coffee.

The loaf is lovely and moist with a great moist crumb and the two batters work so well together. Make sure to get a bit of everything in each mouthful for the tastiest treat. This banana bread is naturally vegan, and it is easily gluten-free by using a 1:1 GF flour. It is such a treat – especially as Snickers bars have always been a favourite of mine!

If you are looking for more banana bread ideas, how about my:

Mini Snickers Bars (Vegan GF)

Servings: 35 small bars or 12 regular bars
Time: 30 minutes plus 2-4 hours chilling
Difficulty: easy
Print

The classic chocolate and peanut butter bar in a no-bake, vegan and more wholesome form. A peanut-date nougat base topped with a peanut date caramel and roasted peanuts all covered in dark chocolate.

Ingredients

100g medjool dates (pitted weight)
150g plain peanuts
60g smooth peanut butter
A pinch of salt
100g medjool dates (pitted weight)
100g smooth peanut butter
4 tbsp plant-based milk
1 pinch of salt
100g peanuts
250g chocolate
1 tsp coconut oil

Directions

Have a mini mould tray to hand or line a dish (about 10cm x 20cm).
Roast the peanuts for the topping for 10 minutes in an oven preheated at 160Fan/180*C for 10 minutes and allow to cool fully.
Soak the dates for the base and the caramel in boiling water for 10 minutes then drain.
Make the base: add the peanuts to a blender and blitz to a fine crumble. Remove from the blender, add the dates and peanut butter and blend until jammy. Add in the peanuts and blend to a sticky nougat. Divide between the moulds or dish and press down firmly.
Make the caramel: add the dates and peanut butter to the blender and process until smooth. Add in the plant-based milk and salt and blend to a silky texture. Pour over the bases.
Add the roasted peanuts on top of the caramel and freeze for 2-4 hours until set (or overnight).
Melt the chocolate with the coconut oil.
Remove the bars from their moulds or carefully slice the large Snickers with a sharp knife into mini or regular-sized bars. Work in batches (keeping the rest cold in the fridge) to dip each bar into the chocolate. Transfer to a parchment lined plate/tray and keep in the fridge until set.