Banana bread. A classic quick bread most of us are familiar with. As I endeavor to reduce the amount of wheat flour in my daily food routine, I am unwilling to completely give up baking. I am a baker; one of those people who enjoys measuring. Ah, following rules and getting a good result, that’s me.
I have in my possession what I consider to be the best banana bread recipe. Ever. You’ll never believe where I got it. A grocery store, name long forgotten, had placed extra-ripe bananas into small handled paper bags, ready for customers to pick up and take home. How did they entice customers to purchase extra-ripe bananas besides having them pre-bagged? There was a recipe for banana bread PRINTED on the bag. Seriously smart marketing. I accepted the challenge, bought the bananas and baked them into bread using the recipe on the bag. Here’s a photo of the original recipe:
This is the original recipe cut out of the bag. See my handwritten notes? This is how ALL my recipes look 🙂
The first changes I made were to reduce the sugar and use all whole wheat flour. Then I experimented with toppings, especially when making muffins. Now I’m introducing coconut flour and almond meal into my baking.
Here’s a few of the main ingredients.
Here’s the new recipe:
INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temp
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup 100% white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup almond meal (sometimes called almond flour)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt (I use sea salt)
3 large ripe bananas, mashed (about 2 cups)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Topping:
2 tablespoons raw almonds, chopped
2 tablespoons raw coconut flakes, chopped
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and grease a 9x5x3 loaf pan with coconut oil.
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. You may want to use a mixer. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. Mix flours, almond meal, baking soda and salt. Add to creamed mixture and mix well.
4. Fold in bananas and vanilla.
5. Pour mixture into pan and sprinkle the chopped almonds and coconut over the top.
6. Bake 50 to 60 minutes, or until toothpick poked into center comes out clean.
7. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.
Makes one loaf or 12 muffins.
Tip: if making muffins, bake for about 40 minutes.
I absolutely love how the almond-coconut topping turned out.
Kitchen Love 