I’m taking my go-to banana bread recipe and making a few changes—tasty changes, I hope:
- Instead of 2 cups of all purpose flour, I’m using 1 cup of that with 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup of oatmeal—more fiber
- For the shortening, that I always interpreted as butter, I’m using extra virgin coconut oil—good flavor, but the jury is still out on heart health
- The 1 cup of sugar is always a problem. I’ve never been happy with the blends that use less sugar in baking, but I’m still on that search. In this batch, I’m substituting brown sugar, which I hope will keep this batch, with all it’s whole grains, moist. To avoid eating too much sugar, I’ll do what I always do, freeze the bread in servings to assure I only eat one a day. I do this successfully with muffins, one of which makes a nice lunch.
- I’m adding a full cup of chopped walnuts, roughly chopped for large pieces.
Well, that was yesterday. I wrapped the cool loaf to sit overnight and develop its flavors—this really happens. I cut the large loaf into 8 thick slices and wrapped them individually for the freezer, leaving one out for breakfast. This might be my new go-to banana bread. The banana taste was prominent, the bread moist and chunky with walnuts. The oats added a chewiness, and while I couldn’t pick out the whole wheat flour, it must have added its own characteristics to the bread. Finally, I think the brown sugar played a large part in the overall flavor.
And I still assert that the best banana bread recipes do not use baking powder, which adds a bitterness with banana.
Whole Wheat Oatmeal Banana Bread
Preheat oven to 350°; butter and flour 1 9″ x 5″ or 2 8″ x 4″ loaf pans.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together
- 1/2 cup extra virgin coconut oil
- 1 cup brown sugar
Beat in
- 2 eggs
Add
- 2 large or 3 small ripe bananas, mashed or broken into chunks
Stir in the dry ingredients and nuts
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup roughly chopped walnuts
Pour batter into the prepared pans. Bake the large loaf for about 55 minutes, the smaller loaves for 45-50 minutes. Test the center with a toothpick for doneness.
Beautiful loaf.
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