When you see some overripe bananas, the first thing that comes to your mind is undoubtedly the good old banana bread. But I am not willing to put a load of brown sugar in my body to save a few bananas. It’s always good to have a slice or two occasionally but having a whole loaf sitting in the pantry is not going to help my diet.
So I thought of replacing the usual ingredients in a banana bread with their healthy substitutes to create a breakfast loaf. It still contains sugar and carbs and thus gives no excuses to over eating but it is better in many ways and is a great grab and go breakfast option.
Notice this is made with only whole wheat flour. I was tempted to substitute half of the flour with rolled oats, but I postponed it for another time. No refined sugar is used what so ever. Instead, I’m using some honey and molasses. Molasses gives that nice brown color and that subtle caramelized flavor. But I am not quite sure the flavor came through in this case, but the color was beautiful. Butter is replaced with olive oil and apple sauce. This makes the crumb supper moist and soft.
Make sure to grease the loaf tin properly. I have sprinkled some pepitas on top for extra texture but it is completely optional. If you like you can use some oats, or chopped nuts instead of pepitas or place a whole banana split lengthwise to make it more visually appealing.
Once the loaf is completely cooled, you can cut thick slices and wrap them individually and freeze them for up to two weeks.
Ingredients
- 2 ripe medium bananas, mashed
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 1/4 cup applesauce
- 2 egg
- 1/2 cup soy milk
- 1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- A handful of pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 160 °C.
- Grease a 9 by 5 inch loaf tin.
- Place oil, eggs, honey, apple sauce and molasses in a bowl and whisk to combine.
- Add the smashed bananas and mix to combine.
- Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl and add to the wet mixture along with the milk.
- Stir until everything is combined and pour in to the prepared tin.
- Sprinkle the pepitas on top and bake for about an hour or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Let the loaf cool for about 10 minutes before taking it off the pan.
- Cool completely before cutting in to it.
