First, mix the sugar, bananas, butter, milk, vanilla and eggs together. Here's where the low(er) fat part comes in - substitute some of the butter with applesauce. We have made it before substituting all of the butter, but it forms better (and tastes better) if you leave some of the fat content in. I substitute half of the butter with cinnamon applesauce.
Helpful Tip #1: If you are out of eggs, applesauce and smashed bananas are substitutes for egg. Just throw some more of either in, and you're good to go!
Helpful Tip #2: If you have some overly ripe bananas that you can't use when they need to be, you can freeze them to keep them at their current ripeness.
If you are like me and don't have an electric mixer, I recommend melting the butter too. If it is a little lumpy, that's okay. It melts and evens out in the oven.
Next, stir in flour, baking soda and salt. If you are going for even healthier, use half white flour, half wheat flour here. Mix all of the ingredients until the dry ingredients are mixed in. If you are going to add chocolate chips, add them just before everything is mixed in to avoid over mixing.
Without Chocolate Chips:
With Chocolate Chips
Spray the pan on all sides and pour in the batter - a spatula is very helpful here. This batter just didn't want to let go of the bowl!
Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 min, and voila! Allow to cool before taking out onto a cooling rack. Pretty simple recipe, but very yummy results!
Low(er) Fat Banana Bread:
1 cup sugar
1 cup smashed bananas
1/2 cup margarine or butter - substitute up to half with applesauce
1/4 cup skim milk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
6 oz. Chocolate Chips (optional)
1. Mix first 6 ingredients in a large bowl
2. Beat for one minute on Medium
3. Add remaining ingredients
4. Stir until just dry
5. Add chocolate chips, if desired
6. Add mix to greased bread pan.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes.
5 comments:
Question: Whenever I made loaves of bread, the top/middle is always doughy. Then I try to bake it longer, and the edges burn. How do you avoid this? Again, me + baking = doughy failure. Sigh.
I have always heard of the applesauce trick but I was afraid to try it. I may give it a whirl as I have some frozen bananas that are ready to go.
As for your question, where is your oven rack placed? The bread should be at the middle of the oven. If that's not it, what temperature are you using? I will also consult my baking cooking book.
It may also be your recipe. Has it always turned out like this? (I consulted the book, no help there.)
If you keep having that problem (after adjusting the oven rack to the middle), try lowering the heat and cooking it longer.
Thank you friends! All excellent tips. I'm contemplating making some pumpkin bread soon (from a box...don't get too excited) but I was hesitant because of my loaf issues. I'd heard something about covering it with tin foil, but that had never worked for me. I'll be sure to stick that oven rack right in the middle and lower the temp while increasing the time. We'll see!
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