Trusty Banana Bread
Sometimes, we scarf all of the bananas in the house without any of them ever over ripening. Other times, we don’t eat enough and wind up with bunches of spotted nay-nays in our fruit bowl. I’ve been looking for a reliable and clean banana bread recipe for years and think I’ve finally found it. A lot of banana bread recipes use a cup of sugar or more. Over-ripe bananas are really naturally sweet, so I included just 1/4 a cup of xylitol, a natural sweetener which is rumored to have other health benefits (such as promoting dental health). I used all organic ingredients for this bread. I recommend at least using organic dairy products so that you can avoid ingesting any added hormones and/or antibiotics.
Trusty Banana Bread
1.5 cups whole wheat flour, plus more for dusting pan
1.5 cups chopped toasted walnuts*
1/4 cup xylitol (I used Xyla) or other natural granulated sweetener, like erythritol
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 ripe spotted bananas, mashed
5 tablespoons melted unsalted butter, plus more for greasing pan
1/4 cup plain yogurt
2 large brown eggs at room temperature, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
Preheat oven to 350 and prepare a 9 x 5 loaf pan by greasing it with butter and dusting it with flour. In a medium bowl, whisk the whole wheat flour, walnuts, xylitol, salt and baking soda. In a separate medium bowl, mix the bananas, butter, yogurt, eggs and vanilla. With a rubber spatula, slowly and gently fold the wet mixture into the dry one until still lumpy and only just combined. Avoid the temptation to over-mix! This will benefit your bread in the long run. Bake for 1 hour, rotating the pan after 30 minutes. Let pan cool for 10-15 minutes then transfer the bread to a wire rack to cool completely. Wrap banana bread in plastic wrap and store at room temperature for up to 3 days. It also freezes really well.
Note: To toast walnuts, place them on a baking sheet and roast them in the oven at 350 for 8 minutes, rotating the pan after 4 minutes.