Foodie Cooks: Cook This Not That {Whole Wheat} Banana Bread

I recently found the Cook This Not That book at my local library. This book is filled with 350 (or less) calorie recipes alternative to the full fat favorite recipes like fried chicken, pasta, and cookies. All the recipes seem simple enough and often have a few ingredients and steps. Each recipe is compared to a high calorie counterpart. It’s a shock to see how high in fat and calories some of my favorite foods can be.

Today, I choose to make banana bread. There is something about the smell of fresh bread that makes the house feel more homey. This banana bread recipe was simple to make and OH-SO yummy! One downside to this recipe book is that I have no clue what the serving size that correlate to the calorie count. This banana bread (I’m sure not the whole bread loaf) is only 350 calories, 12 grams of fat (4.5 grams saturated fat), and 27 grams of sugar. The cost per servings (makes 4 servings) cost about $0.96 USD. The recipe is compared to a $2.16 USD slice of a Starbucks Banana nut loaf. The Starbucks slice has 490 calories, 19 grams of fat (2.5 grams of saturated fat), and 46 grams of sugar.

Let’s get to the bread making!

You’ll Need:

• a 9″ x 5″ x 3″ loaf pan (I didn’t have a loaf pan, so I used a 9″ round cake pan)
• A mixer
• Wooden spoon or spatula
• Knife
• A bowl
• oven

Ingredients:

• 4 very ripe bananas, about 2 cups (I used apple bananas, because they tend to be sweeter)

• 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
• 4 Tbsp butter, melted
• 2 Large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 2 cups flour (I used whole wheat flour. No one could tell the difference)
• 3/4 cup sugar (I used brown sugar)
• 1/2 cup toasted walnuts, coarsely chopped
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt

Let’s get started!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease up your pan with butter. I used Wilton Bake Easy Non-Stick Spray. This is the best thing ever. If I didn’t have this spray or my mixer, I would NEVER bake. This two things made baking so much easier.

Combine the mashed bananas, yogurt, butter, eggs, and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl and stir until combine. In a separate bowl, mix all the dry ingredients, the flour, sugar, walnuts, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Gently fold the dry ingreadients into the wet banana mixture. Stir until all is combined.

All mixed up!

The batter should look something like this. It’s texture is lumpy and a little in between a liquid and a solid. The smell is intoxicating. The ripe bananas and cinnamon is a great combination.

Even though I didn’t use a loaf pan, it still tasted fine. Besides a loaf pan or round pan, I would use a muffin pan or a square pan…anything really. Put it in the oven and bake it on the low oven rack for about 50 minutes. I checked mines at 30 minutes, but in total it took about 45 minutes to bake completely. After the pan is out of the oven, let it rest for 5 minutes before taking it out of the pan or eating it.

The finish product!

The bread was super moist and doesn’t taste diet-y whatsoever. If you put this bread next to the Starbucks’ bread, I bet you would NEVER guess that the bread I made was whole wheat, healthier, and cheaper. Try it!