Thursday, March 24, 2011

What to Do With Too Many Ripe Bananas?

Well, you could of course always cut them into small pieces, freeze them, and then make a delicious frozen banana treat. That’s what I usually do. Or you could make banana bread. And that’s what I decided to make over the weekend.


If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that I’m not a baker. I love to cook because my experiments usually work out. However, when it comes to baking, it’s usually a good idea to follow a recipe exactly, and that’s were I have trouble…

Lately, I have actually been experimenting more when it comes to baking, and surprisingly most of my experiments have been working out. One thing I have been doing is replacing the oil or butter in recipes with applesauce. I know that’s nothing new, and I have been reading about the apple sauce-for-oil-or-butter substitution for a long time.

One of the reasons I am trying to eliminate the oil or butter in recipes is that I can’t eat a lot of fat because of my gallstones, and the applesauce actually makes many baked goods nice and moist. It does change the texture and taste somewhat, so I think everyone has to experiment with what they like… Also, it’s always an option to replace only part of the oil or butter with applesauce and not the entire amount called for. In the banana bread I made, I replaced all the butter with apple sauce, but there is still fat in the recipe because it contains two whole eggs.

The banana bread I ended up making was a mixture (and substitution of several ingredients) of several recipes I have made over the years, and it turned out really well. It really tasted like bananas and was very moist, not too sweet, and had some “substance” due to the whole wheat flour. We loved it. Plus, it tasted even better on Day 2, 3, and 4!

Low-Fat Banana Bread

Ingredients:
  • 3/4 cup sugar (use up to 1 cup if you like your banana bread quite sweet)
  • 1/2 cup apple sauce
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 Tbsp. vanilla
  • 4 very ripe bananas, smashed, but still chunky
  • 3 Tsp. baking powder
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
Directions:
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Pour the sugar and apple sauce in a bowl and mix well.
  3. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix.
  4. Add the smashed bananas.
  5. In a separate bowl, combine the baking powder and flour and mix well.
  6. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix.
  7. Pour the batter in a greased 9x5 baking pan.
  8. Bake for about 55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Prep Time: 65 minutes
Servings: 12


What makes banana bread even better? How about some Justin’s Chocolate Almond Butter?!? It was delicious! The picture I took of my slice of banana bread with the chocolate almond butter looked less than pretty however, so I’m not going to spoil your appetite! Smile  


Questions: Do you like to bake? “Can” you follow a recipe? Do you ever make healthy substitutions to recipes? If so, what are they? 

Be well,
Andrea