I wanted to call this “No Brainer Banana Bread”, after all what else would you do with really, really ripe bananas. I wanted to make one that didn’t have loads of sugar and uses wholewheat flour instead of cake flour. The conundrum arises when wholewheat flour is heavier than cake flour and can make a baked product quite tough. I wanted to retain the fine crumb that banana breads usually have as well as that crusty exterior that you get from adding lots of sugar. Keeping my wits about me I came up with the following recipe. I don’t think it’s 100% perfect but for a first try it is pretty close. I managed to tick all those boxes I mentioned and it’s a healthy alternative to regular banana bread.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups whole wheat self-raising flour
• 1/4 cup cake flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup fine dessicated coconut
• 30ml xylitol
• pinch salt
• 1 cup or 1 large ripe banana or 2 small ones
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup oil
• choc chips

Method:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees celsius. Line a loaf tin with baking paper and spray well with spray and cook.
2. In a large mixing bowl sift the wholewheat flour and cake flour then add the bran that didn’t go through the sieve into the bowl.
3. Add the baking powder, cinnamon, coconut, xylitol and pinch of salt. You can add a handful of chocolate chips at this stage.
4. In a separate bowl, smash the banana with a fork, potato masher or whisk. Whip the banana until it is smooth and light and creamy in color. It should become runny at this stage.
5. Add all the other wet ingredients to the banana (eggs, milk and oil).
6. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into the bowl. Fold with a large metal spoon.
7. The mixture will be thick, spread it evenly in the tin. Sprinkle chocolate chips over the top.
8. Bake for 45 minutes or until the top is golden brown and a knife/ cake tester comes out clean.