Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Recipe: Banana Bread

Posted by Greg in banana bread, greg white, recipies

Aside from commies and tax collectors, who doesn’t love a good banana bread?  One of the defining baked goods of our childhood (™, suckers), it ranks right up there with chocolate chip cookies, pound cake, and your Uncle Larry’s alcohol-laden birthday scotchka cake (recipe: combine scotch and vodka in bundt pan; call ex-wife). Tasty though it may be, the white flour and sugar based delectable has no place in the nutritionally sound 2.0er’s diet. Rather than cut it out of your life entirely, here’s a retooled version made with nourishing whole wheat flour and HDL-rich extra virgin olive oil. Plus, by using overripe bananas* that straddle the fine line between sugary ripe and compost, we cut the added sugar significantly.

* It really is important that you use ultra ripe bananas. Why, you ask? Because as bananas ripen, they convert their starches into sugar. So, the riper the banana, the less sugar you need to add. Plus, Dr. Obvious says that the more bananas you add, the healthier your bread.

Recipe follows after the jump:

Ingredients

Wet:

2 eggs
1/2 cup low fat vanilla yogurt
4 really ripe (like whoa brown) bananas
3/4 c of extra virgin olive oil

Dry:

1/4 c (or less) light brown sugar
2 cups of whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of baking powder
pinch of salt
walnuts, nutmeg, orange peel, whatever else…

(As with any batter, the measurements here are approximate. If your batter looks thin, add some more flour. Too thick, add some more liquid.)

Procedure

Mix the wet ingredients together in one bowl, mix the dry together in another, add dry into wet. Stir to incorporate, pour into greased, (I prefer non-stick) pan, bake at 375 for 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick stuck into the middle comes out dry (aka not covered in uncooked batter).

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