More-Banana Banana Bread Recipe
Use very ripe bananas for More-Banana Banana Bread, which has more fruit, less sugar, and fewer walnuts than most recipes. It also uses white whole-wheat flour instead of all-purpose flour. Toast this banana bread and top with peanut butter for breakfast or slip a piece into a lunch box for dessert. It freezes well, making it a great way to store extra bananas.
Bananas are one of the least expensive fresh fruits available, costing only about 33 each when conventionally grown and 44 cents when grown organically, using prices from 2009. The real bargains come when you find "must sell" ripe bananas that the produce department is trying to get rid of, often for half-price or less.
Active time: 15 minutes. Total time: 1 hour, 15 minutes. Makes 1 loaf.
Ingredients
4 medium very ripe bananas, about 1 1/2 cups when mashed or 360 grams
1/2 cup brown sugar (108 grams)
2 1/2 cups white whole-wheat flour (300 grams)
1 tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large egg
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (64 grams), optional
Method
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter or grease bread pan (about 9 x 5 x 3 inches).
- Peel bananas and cut off any spoiled spots. Put in bowl and mash with potato masher or big fork or spoon.
- Add sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir dry ingredients to mix in the baking powder and salt. (Mixing the dry ingredients on top of the bananas saves washing an extra bowl and mixes the dry ingredients well enough.)
- Add remaining ingredients. Stir briskly for about 30 seconds, making sure the batter is well mixed. Pour into loaf pan and bake for 60 minutes, until toothpick or skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack before slicing. Refrigerate for up to a week or freeze.
Tips and notes
- If you have smaller bread pans, such as ones that measure 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches, grease two and make two loaves.
- If you can't find white whole-wheat flour locally, mail order it from King Arthur Flour. I use the organic white whole-wheat flour, but they also have a conventionally grown version. Sign up for their free enewsletter so you can shop the sales. For example, at the time of this writing the organic white whole-wheat flour is only $7.95 on the site with free shipping for orders over $75. That's a dollar a bag less than I can get it at the local store and there's no sales tax. I go in with neighbors to create an order big enough to get free shipping. You don't want to stock up too much on whole-grain flours unless you have room to freeze it, since it goes rancid in only a few months at room temperature.
