In a constant quest to make the food that I eat as healthy as possible, last night I decided to try my hand at "healthifying" (probably not a real word-but it gets the point across!) a basic banana bread recipe.
Truth be told, I had about 8 very overripe bananas that were calling out to be used for something good instead of being thrown away.
To begin with, I used nice, rich whole wheat flour instead of plain white flour. I cut the whole cup of sugar down to a half and used a little Splenda to make that half. Instead of a cup of oil, I used mostly applesauce with a little bit of the oil....egg whites, instead of whole eggs...I added some chopped walnuts (nuts are the new health food these days) and then regular amounts of cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder and baking soda.
I was quite proud of myself and as I poured the thick batter into the loaf pan....I envisioned writing a new book...leading to a guest spot on Oprah called: "Healthified Cooking with Grammie"...(a girl can dream, right?) Oprah would make it her Book Club selection and I would make my first million soon after that!
Reality hit as the timer went off in the oven.
So, fifty-five minutes later as I took the banana bread from the oven I was amazed at the wonderful banana bread aroma that filled the kitchen.
The outside texture looked good even though it felt a little heavier than other breads that I have baked.
After cooling down, the moment of truth arrived. I slowly cut into my healthified loaf-- finding it a little resistant to getting the knife through it.
"Ah, it is so nice and rich", I thought to myself.
First taste.
Gulp.
It was a little totally tough to chew. It was a little unbelievably dense.
Another bite.
Same reaction.
This banana bread turned out just like a very heavy banana-flavored brick!!!!!!
Oh well....Back to the drawing board... and into the garbage for that experiment. : O
1 comment:
Ok, first YAY to you for trying something a bit different. You did fine, except when you use whole wheat flour it's a LOT heavier, so increase the soda and baking powder. I mix the flour 50/50 with pastry flour to lighten it up. Applesauce is a wonderful replacement for oil, it takes away that nasty oil taste, but if you want oil, try olive oil, or my personal favorite rice bran oil. Eggs are fine, they are needed to raise the bread from brick to YUMMY. Don't dispair, just try again, you'll be amazed what you can accomplish with some healthy options.
I like Agave Sweetener, I use it almost exclusively. Honey is another really good option, but if you use liquid sweetener the batter gets a little thin and so it takes a bit more baking time.
Good luck, don't worry, and you can always e-mail me for help, I do a lot of baking, in fact I bought a bagfull of really really ripe bananas just for this reason!
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