Sunday, September 21, 2008

Whole Wheat Banana Bread Recipe

Okay, technically this is only a half-wheat recipe. Except that all run-of-the-mill (literally, I think) flour is wheat unless specifically otherwise stated, so it's a half *whole* wheat recipe. By which I mean, there are two cups of flour in it, and only one of them is whole wheat flour. Still, YUM, and half of the flour being whole wheat has to get you *some* points on the health scale, I should think. I suppose you could always put two cups of whole wheat flour in, but I think the texture would be very different in the finished loaf.

Anyway... I shall stop philosophizing about flour now, and give you the recipe. I would give credit if I could, but this is a photocopied page (shh, don't tell the publishers of the original book!) in a binder of family recipes Mom put together for each of us several Christmases ago. The bottom of the page says, "Quick Breads," page 82.

Oh wait, one more thing. Karen, if you canuks (did I spell that right?) measure your ingredients metrically and talk about your cooking temperatures in Celsius, here's a pretty cool automatic online conversion site that I hope will help.

Whole Wheat Banana Bread (see previous post for photo)

1/2 cup (1/4lb.) butter or margarine
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, slightly beaten
3 medium sized bananas (1 cup mashed - trust me, measure it. Too much = bad news)
1 cup regular all-purpose flour (sift before measuring)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup hot water
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (see note at end)

Melt butter and blend with sugar. Mix in beaten eggs and mashed bananas, blending until smooth. Sift all-purpose flour again with salt and soda. Stir in whole wheat flour. Add dry ingredients alternately with hot water. Stir in chopped nut meats. Turn into greased, 9 by 5-inch loaf pan. Bake in a moderately slow oven (325 degrees) for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Makes 1 loaf.

Violet's notes: Sweet Pea is currently in a boring-food stage so we're making this bread without nuts. HOWEVER - when I'm choosing, I usually substitute chopped up dried fruit for the nuts. If I'm feeling bad, I substitute chocolate chips instead.

4 comments:

Karen Bodkin said...

You rock! And I measure American - so no worries!

Coal Miner's Granddaughter said...

Thanks for the recipe, hon! I see you Tweeting about good-sounding stuff all the friggin' time and you make me hungry! How about that banana-chocolate bar? Is that right?

Unknown said...

Karen - it's good to know these things. I learned that they actually measure American in the UK too, at least some of the time, which I thought was kind of wild.

Heather - Are you talking about the banana bars with chocolate chips? Did I mention those a while back? I was going to post that recipe too, since it's another good way to use up overripe bananas, but the last time I made it, it turned to crumbs instantly whenever I cut a piece. I think the recipe needs some work before sharing - though I'm not sure what to do; wondering if another egg would make it stay together better.

jennyonthespot said...

Oh, that looks like a good recipe! I'mgoing to need to try it - we LOVE banana bread - and if I can get some whole wheat in there... that's be good!