Bananas are one fruit I put my foot down when it comes to buying organic. You may not believe this, but I was told by the produce manager of our local market that there is no such thing as a truly organic banana. Well, I guess he should know. I found several articles that are pro-organic:
“The major difference between [organic and conventional bananas] is that conventional bananas are grown with synthetic fertilizers, insecticides, and herbicides to protect the crops from mold, bugs, and disease… Organic farmers use natural fertilizers such as manure and seaweed, insect predators and barriers to prevent pests.” Fitsugar.com
“You may be thinking that all those chemicals used to grow conventional bananas are no big deal because you peel the fruit. But the chemicals are not just on the outside of the banana — they leach into the soil that is used to grow the produce. So even if you peel your banana, it doesn’t prevent you from ingesting small amounts of those chemicals.” Fitsugar.com.
Then there is the dirty dozen list:
I don’t buy organic bananas and I’m still alive and kicking, although according to some of the information above, I may be filled with chemicals. Oh well.
And, I save bananas. Sometimes there are just too many for me to eat before they get soft. I don’t mind peeling and freezing them because they are great in smoothies, and when I get enough of them, I make bread, muffins, and cake.
I guess I didn’t realize how many bananas I had in the freezer until today. I had the BBBs, and went on a “Banana Bread Bender,” making four batches of banana bread and morphed the ingredients into large loaves of bread, muffins, little cakes, and mini muffins.
I made so many, I’ll be handing these out to anyone who shows up at my front door. (The line forms to the right.)
Wet and dry ingredients ready to be mixed. I mashed the bananas with a potato masher.
One of the changes I made this time was to swap a few ingredients to make this banana treat a little healthier. Instead of 2 cups of all-purpose flour, I substituted 1 cup of Bob’s Red Mill Whole Wheat Pastry Flour. The other change was to eliminate 1 cup sugar and substitute 1/2 cup Truvia baking blend. I really like how the breads and muffins turned out with such a light texture and flavor was not compromised one bit.
When I ran out of walnuts, I added craisins instead in the last batch. It is a nice change and tasted great!
2 medium sized loaves or 1 large
Save RecipeIngredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (I used Bob's Red Mill brand)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 1/2 cups mashed banana (5 medium)
- 1/2 cup Truvia baking blend (sugar substitute)
- 1/2 cup cooking oil or melted butter or margarine
- 1/4 cup chopped walnuts and/or crasins
- **See Notes for variations
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Grease bottom and 1/2 inch up the sides of one 9x5x3-inch or two 7-1/2x3-1/2x2-inch loaf pans; set aside.
- In a large bowl combine eggs, banana, sugar, and oil or butter.
- In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
- Stir flour mixture into egg mixture just until moistened (batter should be lumpy). Fold in nuts.
- Spoon batter into prepared pan(s).
- Bake for 55 to 60 minutes for 9x5x3-inch pan or 40 to 45 minutes for 7-1/2x3-1/2x2-inch pans or until a wooden toothpick inserted near center comes out clean (if necessary, cover loosely with foil the last 15 minutes of baking to prevent overbrowning). (I forgot this part and one loaf did get a little overbrowned.
- Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan. Cool completely before slicing.
Notes
**BH&G original recipe has 2 cups of all purpose flour, 1 cup of regular sugar and Streusel-Nut topping. You can find their original recipe at https://www.bhg.com/recipe/quickbreads/banana-bread/
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