Baking

Whole Wheat and Oat Banana Bread

Posted by on Apr 15, 2012 in Baking, Breakfast, Recipes | 1 comment

I’m always looking for healthy recipes to try, and while playing on Pinterest the other day, I found this banana bread recipe with honey and applesauce. I really suck at following recipes, so of course I made my own version with a few changes to fit my taste.

I sometimes find recipes that use all wheat flour taste funny because 1) the wheat flavor overpowers the rest and 2) wheat flour cooks hotter/burns easier. I kind of have a love affair with oats in baking, and they add a nice “earthy” flavor, as my mom calls it. This recipe is definitely healthier than my shortening version, but it doesn’t leave more to be desired like some health food — aka “I’m eating this to be healthy, but I may as well not eat it at all because it tastes nothing like the ‘real’ version.” I also reduced the amount of honey since the blackberry honey I have is super sweet. If you are using clover honey, you may want more, but I feel like it has a good amount of sweetness.

Now that I have the recipe just right, those other three bananas sitting in my banana hammock better be wary. I think another loaf may be necessary!

Whole Wheat and Oat Banana Bread with Honey and Applesauce

Ingredients

3 overripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup applesauce
2/3 cup honey
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/4 cups oats
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

Directions

Banana Bread Recipe for My Sister of the Year Award

Posted by on Nov 16, 2011 in Baking, Breakfast, Recipes | 0 comments

In my opinion, there are few things better than homemade banana bread. Now imagine you live in a NYC apartment that doesn’t even have an oven (so the luxury of making it at home is amiss) and your little sister baked you a loaf, hopped on a plane and flew 2,000 miles just to bring it to you. That would be a really good sister, right?

Consider this my application for Sister of the Year 2011.  

I had some sad little brown bananas and I thought, what better use than whipping up some bread for two of my favorite men? One to leave at home with my hubby (and to test…to make sure the taste is up to par) and another to bring to my brother in Manhattan.  Pure brilliance if you ask me.

Now my usual banana bread recipe with shortening calls for more bananas than I had. So I altered a few things and whipped up a new recipe that still does the job without sacrificing flavor. Also to note, I often don’t add any spices in banana bread to maximize the taste of banana, but for this recipe I added a pinch of allspice since I didn’t have as many banans in this recipe. Plus it adds a bit of fall flair without overpowering the delicious flavor.

Award-Winning Banana Bread 
(even if it is only my Sister of the Year award) 

Ingredients

1 stick of butter, softened
4 eggs
4 or 5 bananas, very ripe and mashed
1 1/3 cup sugar
1 2/3 cup all-purpose unbleached flour
1 cup of oats
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of allspice (optional)
1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix butter, eggs, bananas and sugar in a bowl until completely combined. Add flour baking soda, baking powder and a little at a time until blended. Stir in oats, chopped pecans and allspice. Pour in two greased loaf pans and bake for 30-45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Makes 2 loaves