Banana Goodness

I've been on the quest for a good banana bread for a long time.  Even before the allergies hit, to be honest.  I eat a lot of bananas, but I don't always manage to eat them all in time.  My freezer fills up with bags of banana chunks, or, if I'm especially pressed for time, bunches of whole bananas which have turned black from the cold.  (Which doesn't in any way impact the fruit inside).  I need something to do with these bananas, and banana bread is one of my favourite foods.  My mom used to make a fabulous banana bread when I was growing up, sweetened with honey and pureed dates and made with whole wheat flour instead of white.  It was healthy enough that she let me eat it for breakfast, which was the ultimate treat (cereal can get quite monotonous!)  But it's hard to puree dates without a blender, so I always knew I was going to have to find a new recipe.

Last summer, in my very brief spelt-flour baking stage, and in search of a recipe I could make for a baking-deprived diet-restricted friend, I discovered an absolutely fantastic recipe for banana bread.  It won me great accolades, and because it was vegan, whole-grain, high in flax and had no refined sugar, I deemed it healthy enough to eat at any time of day.  However, it didn't take long after that before my body to remind me that spelt was very definitely not gluten-free.  I spent months searching for a replacement recipe, and made some absolutely horrid banana breads along the way.  (One was flat, burnt, and the middle fell out when I tried to remove it from the pan.  Disaster!)  And then recently, I stumbled upon a wonderful, moist, whole-grain, high-protein, delicious spiced banana muffin recipe.  I'm not picky, I'll take my banana baking in whatever form it comes, and muffins were more than good enough for me.  The recipe claimed to be a cupcake, but I claim it was just banana bread in disguise.

For those of you who can eat spelt, or who want to make the recipe with regular flour, check out this "Super-Secret" Ginger-Orange Banana Bread recipe.  The flavour combination might sound weird, but it's really just a subtle background note that gives the Banana Bread a lot of depth.

My notes on the subject:

• To make it vegan (or just healthier), replace the eggs with flax seed.  Mix 2 tbsp ground flax seed with 6 tbsp (i.e. 1/4 cup + 2tbsp) warm water.

• The recipe calls for part whole spelt flour, part white spelt flour.  I used entirely whole spelt flour, and the banana bread was still moist and delicious.  As the recipe states, you can also use white flour (and I would venture probably whole wheat flour as well) instead of the spelt flour

• I have never succeeded in locating a satsuma or clementine orange.  I would buy a giant naval orange and add 1/2-3/4 of the juice into the batter (generally I'd start with 1/2, and then if the batter seemed stiff at the end I'd add a bit more orange juice)

• I used evaporated cane sugar (such as Sucanat) in place of the sugar.  I also usually cut the sugar down to about a 1/2 cup (I always cut the sugar in every recipe).  I also often increased the banana a bit, for extra flavour (and extra lift - banana is another egg substitute), but it's not necessary.

• Like for all banana breads, it's absolutely acceptable to freeze your overripe bananas and use them in baking later.  They're less cold to deal with if you peel them before freezing, but they can also be peeled frozen.  Cutting the frozen bananas in half lengthwise leaves them easiest to peel. 

For those of you for whom spelt is just too much gluten to be reckoned with, I recommend trying these Banana Spice Cupcakes/Muffins.  There are two recipes on the page, and I made the second one (since I wanted the recipe already designed to bake in muffin tins).  While this recipe claims to be cupcakes, I cut the sugar down and didn't ice them, and they were totally healthy enough to be deemed muffins.  I used flax seed instead of the eggs, and the ground almond flour gives them proteins (as do the additional walnuts I threw in).

My modifications:

• I happened to have almond meal on hand, but no whole almonds; so instead of grinding my own, I just used 1 cup of pre-ground almond meal.  The amounts pre- and post-ground don't always match up, but in this case the straight replacement seemed to work fine.  (This means these muffins are achievable for those of you without food processors!)

•  As per usual, I got rid of the eggs and replaced them with ground flax seed and water (see above).  Banana bread is especially forgiving of egg replacers, because bananas themselves also mimic several of the properties of eggs.

• I definitely increased the amounts of the cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg, but I love me my spices in baking.  The final product wasn't overpoweringly Christmas-y though, it just had a nice undertone of spiciness

• I used honey instead of agave or brown rice syrup, since it's what I had on hand

• I cut the sugar down to a cup, and I'm sure this recipe would work equally well with evaporated cane sugar as it did with the golden sugar I used.

Happy Banana Baking!  May many delicious breakfasts await you...