I am am finally baking again. I was down & out with the flu for a few days and as much as that sucked, it gave the bananas time to get ripe and disgusting, and it gave me…well, it gave me no joy. But this banana bread did.
It’s an unusual recipe, and I did play with it a bit. Things started simply enough with the dry ingredients: flour (whole wheat white), baking soda, baking powder, salt, oats, and cinnamon (2 heaping teaspoons instead of the 1/2 teaspoon suggested). Then I added a 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg, and whisked.
I set that aside, and mashed up the bananas, then added 3 teaspoons of canola oil and one egg, lightly beaten.
Then I poured that mixture into the flour, and stirred it all together.
And then came the interesting part. I beat two egg whites until they formed medium stiff peaks — which I had to look up to know just how far along the stiff peaks road to go.
I kept going until I saw the peaks, then spooned into the batter in three portions, stirring it in each time.
Once fully incorporated, I decided something was missing, so I threw in just over a quarter cup of mini chocolate chips. It just seemed like the right thing to do. I poured it into a loaf pan.
It said to bake for 45 to 50 minutes, but mine was completely done at 40.
I let it cool for 5 minutes, then removed it from the pan.
It smelled great, but one isn’t that discriminating when one hasn’t had a meal in several days. So I left it to Nathaniel to judge. He had a piece this morning and I watched a grin spread across his face and his two thumbs went slowly up. He was a very happy nine-year-old with a mouthful of banana bread. I had some today and I agree with his assessment.
Great recipe! I gave it a bit of a flavor boost, but the basic recipe was there, and it’ll be worth making again and again. And again. And definitely without having had the flu first.
LOW FAT OATMEAL BANANA BREAD RECIPE (original)
My version of Low Fat Oatmeal Banana Bread (adapted from Joy The Baker)
ingredients:
1 1/4 cups whole wheat white flour
1 cup uncooked old fashioned oats
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
3 large bananas, ripe
3 teaspoons canola oil
1 large egg, beaten
2 large egg whites, beaten
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
directions:
Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour (or spray) a loaf pan and set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
In a smaller bowl, mash bananas. Add oil and whole egg and mix thoroughly.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix well. Batter will be fairly thick.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, or with an electric hand mixer, beat the egg whites until medium stiff peaks form. (I went to the web to find photos of this, which was helpful.) Fold the egg whites into the batter in three separate additions.
Fold in the mini chocolate chips.
Pour batter into pan and bake until top of loaf is firm to touch, 35 to 50 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes. Flip out and cool on a wire rack.
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