With the extra time in quarantine, many have stepped into the kitchen, exploring recipes, snacking, etc. My Twitter feed has recently blown up with COVID-19 becoming the new freshman 15 tweets. I've laughed at them, while secretly trying to lay off the chips, in hopes of warding off the unwanted pounds and eating "healthier". One key thing to know about eating healthier is MODERATION! My intro to nutrition professor explained that just like eating healthy once won't dramatically change your life, neither will having one slice of banana bread.* Especially if it's healthy banana bread.
*words were altered to fit this occasion.
After being hyped up by my family and becoming overzealous with my banana bread skills, I figured it was time to find some healthier banana bread recipes. There's no reason to deprive yourself from good food, but if you're going in on the breads, I've baked, tested, and uncovered healthier and TASTIER recipes for you to try!
Fair warning: each recipe has chocolate chips. DELICIOUS!
Paleo Friendly Banana Bread
This banana bread is full of nutrients, using coconut flour, almond butter, and allergen friendly chocolate chips. Did I mention it's sugar-free?
The coconut flour made it more filling than normal banana bread. Coconut flour is a tricky substance when baking. It's more absorbent than normal flour, so I recommend trying a recipe that specifically uses coconut flour before going out on your own. Overall, this was the most efficient recipe. It took one bowl, was machine mixed, and took less time than my normal banana bread. Being sugar-free, it had a stronger banana and almond butter flavor, just delicious!
Gluten-Free Banana Bread
After following Gimme Delicious' recipe, I was left with a ton of batter. For some reason I thought "the more the merrier" and put all of the batter in my small 9x5 loaf pan. My loaf ended up quite large so I had some complications with the bread baking all the way through so instead of the suggested 50-55 minutes, my bread took an estimated 80 minutes! I took the liberty of adding cinnamon to the top, which made my crust more crumbly. In the future, I would recommend adding the cinnamon to the batter. Nevertheless, this was a lovely recipe, moist as expected, and had a great flavor.
"Personalized" Vegan Banana Bread
In the future, I would recommend adding the cinnamon to the batter. Nevertheless, this was a lovely recipe, moist as expected, and had a great flavor.
My favorite part about this recipe is the elements of personalization. If you don't have almond flour, you can use white flour! If you're dairy free, use almond milk yogurt and oil instead of milk and normal yogurt. I personally used vanilla almond milk yogurt for an additional sweetness factor. I HIGHLY recommend that you follow the baking instructions. Letting the bread cool and refrigerate overnight is a crucial step to the process. It seemed impossible, but each day the bread tasted sweeter and the texture was AMAZING!
5 Closing Thoughts and Tips
Overall, I would make all of these recipes again! Here's some tips I learned along the way:
I HIGHLY recommend that you follow the baking instructions. Letting the bread cool and refrigerate overnight is a crucial step to the process. It seemed impossible, but each day the bread tasted sweeter and the texture was AMAZING!
1. If your banana bread center is still gooey, try to tent a piece of foil over the loaf pan. Another way to ensure consistent cooking throughout your bread is to aerate it. Poke holes with a skewer throughout your bread!
2. Follow the recipes verbatim for your first go at the recipe!
*a wise word of advice for all new recipes
3. SOFTEN YOUR BUTTER! Don't ask why. Just do it.
4. Spots are GREAT! Ripe bananas (a.k.a the not so cute ones with brown spots) are PERFECT and preferred for banana bread.
5. Share your bread! Cause who doesn't like banana bread