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Friday, December 28, 2012

Whole Wheat Banana Bread

cookies holiday (4)Holiday baking at The Frog & PenguINN has included several varieties of Grenville’s chocolate chip cookies, and a couple batches of banana-blueberry yogurt muffins. And, this 1216 Banana muffins (1) week, our kitchen has been filled with the aroma of homemade banana bread as several loaves baked in the oven. Not only is this bread SO easy to make, there’s lots of variations possible with added ingredients as I found when doing an online recipe search. It’s GREAT with a cup of morning coffee (afternoon or evening too) OR a glass of cold milk; hot chocolate goes well too.

The recipe below is from the King Arthur whole wheat flour bag. We visited the King Arthur Baking Education Center in Norwich, VT this year. This place is a baker’s (and shopper’s)delight featuring a retail store, baking education center, and state-of-the-art bakery where you can watch bakers at work. There’s also a large eat-in café with sweet treats for sale (sorry, no free samples).

Whole Wheat Banana Bread

You do NOT have to mix the two flours, and can use only white flour if you prefer. This version may be a bit healthier, at least it would be nice to think so, don’t you think?.

  • 2 C very ripe bananas, mashed
  • ½ C vegetable oil
  • 1 C sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 3 TBSP milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 C King Arthur whole wheat flour
  • 1 C King Arthur unbleached all-purpose white flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ C chopped walnuts OR pecans
    TOPPING
  • 2 TBSP  sugar
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9x5-inch loaf pan OR spray the bottom with cooking spray.

  1. In a large bowl, mash the bananas. Add oil, sugar, eggs, milk, and vanilla and stir to combine.
  2. Mix in the flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt and chopped nuts. Scrape bottom and sides of the bowl to thoroughly combine ingredients. (NOTE: Be careful not to over mix.)
  3. Transfer batter into prepared pan. Mix together sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the batter. 1227 banana bread (1)
  4. Bake in preheated oven for about 60 minutes, until a tester inserted in center comes out clean.
  5. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then tip out of the pan, transfer to a rack to cool. (NOTE: Bread could be hard to remove if left sitting in pan too long.)

ADD-INS – include WITH the bananas (or not):

  • 1/2 C plain (or vanilla) yogurt or 1/2 C sour cream (not both)
  • 1 C chocolate chips
  • 1/2 C baking cocoa
  • 1/2 - 3/4 C blueberries (coating in flour helps prevent them from sinking in batter) 1222 whole wheat banana bread (5) ENJOY — if you are in the neighborhood stop in for a piece.
    Drop-in friends always welcome; back door ones are the best.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh boy! We would love this bread and it would be fun to visit the educational center, too! Have a nice weekend and a happy new year.

Ginnie said...

I will definitely try this one. I love Banana bread and it looks moist and yummy.

DeniseinVA said...

I love the sound of this. Will definitely try. I wanted to thank you for the really pretty Christmas Card you sent us. I'm looking at it right now on the mantle.

Unknown said...

I can smell it baking. I have been indoors today but detailed to domestic activities and some blogging. Maybe tomorrow I will bake, maybe. lately I have not felt inspired. But I do have a stash of biscotiti on store still from pre hristmas baking. You are ambitious.

Unknown said...

PS, many thanks for the beautiful card. Wonderful cardinal photo

Country Gal said...

Looks and sounds wonderful . I haven't seen that brand of flour here in Canada , I am sure we have something similar to it ! Have a wonderful evening !

Montanagirl said...

We both like Banana Bread. Your recipe looks yummy! Happy New Year.

jp@A Green Ridge said...

That sounds yummy but those cookies look scrumptious...:)JP

MadSnapper said...

looks good to me...

The Retired One said...

this sounds delicious! I have been incorporating more whole wheat in my diet and dropping the sugar, so I will have to try this with using Splenda and see how it turns out! thanks!

Anonymous said...

All this looks so delicious but I really must stop eating cookies and cakes now :-) :-) :-)

Have a great day!
Christer.

Claire M. King said...

Looks yummy.

Connie said...

I bet your kitchen always smells good! This bread sounds great.