My discovery is not as earth shattering or inspiring as Columbus, Darwin, or Einstein's contributions; but due to the rare nature of new discoveries in my home, this at least deserves an honorable blog mention. We all likely deserve an honorable mention for something each day; whether as peace-keepers, innovators, providers, encouragers, caregivers, detectives; we become meritorious contributors just from our sustained effort to do the right thing. Today they right thing was using up a few old bananas before they succumbed to Darwinian fruit flies!
I did what I always do to find a recipe, referred to a few trusted cookbooks only to recall that most banana bread recipes call for a stick of butter and more than a cup of sugar. Having experimented over the past couple of years with more whole-food baking I knew bananas were plenty sweet when mashed, combined, and cooked with compatible ingredients...primarily peanut butter and chocolate! In fact, earlier this week I made a Caramel Peanut Butter cookie recipe from My Whole Food Life with Melissa King which only required 4 ingredients: cashew butter, ground dates, baking soda, and chocolate chips. While the cookies received generally positive reviews from my taste-testers, ultimately we all agreed a teaspoon of peanut butter with chocolate chips on top is just as satisfying with less prep and cook time required.
I did what I always do to find a recipe, referred to a few trusted cookbooks only to recall that most banana bread recipes call for a stick of butter and more than a cup of sugar. Having experimented over the past couple of years with more whole-food baking I knew bananas were plenty sweet when mashed, combined, and cooked with compatible ingredients...primarily peanut butter and chocolate! In fact, earlier this week I made a Caramel Peanut Butter cookie recipe from My Whole Food Life with Melissa King which only required 4 ingredients: cashew butter, ground dates, baking soda, and chocolate chips. While the cookies received generally positive reviews from my taste-testers, ultimately we all agreed a teaspoon of peanut butter with chocolate chips on top is just as satisfying with less prep and cook time required.
For my banana bread I referred to another trusted site, Lisa Leak's 100 Days of Real Food and found she had similar ideas. We don't need margarine, sugar, and white flour to make delicious breads and muffins. Honey, coconut oil, whole-wheat flour and even yogurt can give it the consistency of traditional bread without the sugar crash aftermath. Her recipe did call for 1/4 cup plain yogurt which I did not have on hand (successfully minimizing dairy;) thus, with a little contemplation, my Einstein light-bulb moment, I elected peanut butter as an appropriate substitute for yogurt. Tonight the loaf is almost gone, enjoyed by kids, friends, spouse, and of course mostly by the culinary inventor!
Whole-Wheat Banana (Peanut Butter) Bread
Ingredients
2 1/4 cup whole-wheat flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
2 eggs
1/3 cup oil (I used coconut oil)
1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease pan.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt
3. In a separate bowl mix mashed bananas with peanut butter, honey, eggs, oil and vanilla.
4. Fold the banana mixture into the flour mixture until blended. Do not over-mix.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan.
6. Bake large loaf for 40-50 minutes (mine was more like 55 minutes)
Whole-Wheat Banana (Peanut Butter) Bread
Ingredients
2 1/4 cup whole-wheat flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
2 eggs
1/3 cup oil (I used coconut oil)
1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease pan.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt
3. In a separate bowl mix mashed bananas with peanut butter, honey, eggs, oil and vanilla.
4. Fold the banana mixture into the flour mixture until blended. Do not over-mix.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan.
6. Bake large loaf for 40-50 minutes (mine was more like 55 minutes)
Trey, in his funny way, asked, "So what gluten are you using this time mom?" Overall he was impressed with the true bread texture, density, and flavor but he did mention it was not as sweet as some he has tried (it is missing the usual 1 cup of granulated sugar!) But, with his Aunt DeAnn's mulberry jam or a little honey on top he too found great satisfaction with this revised banana bread. If you are like me, and have done an occasional sugar detox, you will find the bread plenty sweet! Enjoy!
Thank you for reading.
Thank you for reading.