Banana Bread
Makes 1 loaf, Preparation Time 90 minutes
Banana Bread is almost a staple in our kitchen. As a rule, we avoid eating sweet knacks. Although through time, we have made changes to recipes such as this Banana Bread to make the treat healthier by eliminating or finding substitutes for eggs, dairy, solid fats, free-flowing fats, and refined white flours. We still do not consider them healthy foods, but just treats. What we do consider healthy food is a banana. On most days in our kitchen, you will find one or two bunches of bananas. During most weeks, ripping green bananas replace all eaten ripe bananas. Some weeks we fall short and have a number of very ripe bananas, and our solution to that is Banana Bread, which makes Banana Bread common enough to make almost a near staple. This Banana Bread recipe is delicious and does not last for more than two days in our kitchen.
- 3 medium overripe bananas
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar, or 1/3 cup brown sugar and 1/3 granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup crushed or chopped walnuts or pecans
- 1/2 cup raisins, or chocolate chips
For the Topping
- 1/4 cup of granulated sugar or brown sugar
- Preheat the oven to 350°.
- Lightly oil a 9-inch loaf pan or line the pan with parchment paper, We tend to just drop the batter into one large sheet of parchment paper with extra paper hanging over each side. The loaf does not have the perfect rectangular shape but it tastes just the same.
- Peel the bananas and place them into a large mixing bowl. Mash them with a fork or potato masher.
- Add sugar, oil, and vanilla to the bowl and if you are using it, the brown sugar. Stir until well-mixed.
- Add the flour to the bowl, sprinkled with the baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Mix to make a thick batter. There is no need to over mix it because you will be adding the nuts and dried fruit.
- Fold in the walnuts and raisins.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Smooth out the top with the back of a spoon and sprinkle the top with more sugar.
- Bake for 60 minutes, or until a small smooth knife inserted into the centre comes out clean.
- Remove the pan from the oven and transfer it to a cooling rack.
- Allow the loaf to cool for at least 25 minutes or more before removing it from the pan and serving.
Vegetable oil and other types of fats are optional or can be replaced by using apple sauce as a substitute. Both the oils and apple sauce serve to keep the finished cake moist. Using whole wheat flour also keeps the loaf moist making the oil or apple sauce redundant, but it does no harm to use it. In our recipe, the vegetable oil is a holdback to the days when we used fats and refined white flour in our cooking. Today we would replace the 1/4 cup vegetable with 1/4 to 1/3 cup apple sauce or eliminate it altogether.
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