Banana Bread

This is an old family favorite, made over; regardless of which recipe I use, it never lasts more than a day around here.   I'll post both recipes here.  





Banana Bread, original recipe
from The Fanny Farmer Cookbook

3 ripe bananas, mashed
2 eggs, well beaten
2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.   Mix bananas & eggs together in a large bowl.  Stir in all the dry ingredients and the walnuts and blend together.   Pour the (thick) batter into a greased loaf pan and bake for 1 hour.  

Banana Bread, modified recipe

3-1/2 bananas, mashed
2 chia/eggs flax "eggs" (2 tablespoons fresh flax meal + 6 tablespoons water)
1 cup whole wheat flour and 1 cup quick cooking oats (not instant) *
     OR, 2 cups oats

1/2 cup sweetener or equivalent in ground raisins, dates (or, honey, maple syrup) *

1 tsp baking powder
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon (or less, to taste)
optional - 1/2 cup nuts (pecans, walnuts)

Make the flax eggs first - mix the water into the flax meal in a bowl, stir together and let sit in the refrigerator for 15 minutes minimum (30-60 is best).   Stir the mixture again when it's ready, and add it to the bananas.   Blend in the remaining ingredients and pour into a loaf pan.   Bake at 325 for 50 minutes. 

* if you use old fashioned oats, you can give them a quick run in the food processor if you want more of a flour feel and less chunky oats.   Either way is fine. 

Notes: Using whole wheat flour and oats rather than white flour makes a different texture and calls for more sweetness in the recipe.  I can easily cut the sugar in half on the original recipe without noticing a taste difference, but it affects the modified recipe much more.  So, I have tried leaving out the sweeteners (sugars, honeys) and just using ground dates/raisins.   It is a different taste but I'd rather see them use a 1/2 tsp or so of honey directly on it than load the recipe with it.   The little guy usually just puts peanut butter on his.