I don’t know whether it’s the word ‘bread’ but there is a misconception that banana bread is a healthy option for breakfast. In actual fact, you might as well eat cake to start off your day. With lots of sugar and fat and being pretty much devoid of protein and good fibre, banana bread should be seen as a treat, not part of the everyday diet. Yes, the sugar will give a boost in the morning but an hour or so later, the high will wear off and you will be left feeling tired and reaching for coffee and snacks (see my July post on breakfast). However some banana breads are better than others such as those made with very ripe bananas instead of sugar, yoghurt in the place of butter and healthy alternatives to white flour.
The carbohydrate in an unripe banana is mostly in the form of starch, but in a ripe banana, the starch is converted to glucose giving it a much sweeter taste. Therefore, very ripe bananas, the black ones that look like they are ready for the bin, can be used to sweeten banana bread instead of copious amounts of sugar. These are the ones I have used in this recipe so I only need to add a small amount of honey to the mix. But don’t forget, although you are eating natural sugar, it’s still sugar! This recipe also substitutes yoghurt and a small amount of olive oil for butter which reduces the saturated fat content found in many banana breads.
Finally, there are few banana breads out there that cater for wheat free or gluten free diets. I have used a mixture of buckwheat flour and coconut flour, neither of which contain any wheat or gluten. Coconut flour has the highest fibre content of any flour with a staggering 38.5g of fibre per 100g and has a low concentration of digestible carbohydrates. Clinical studies have found that coconut flour lowers the GI of foods when used in baking.
1¼ cup organic buckwheat flour
¾ cup organic coconut flour
1 tsp low allergy baking powder
¼ tsp sea salt
½ cup walnuts, chopped
1½ cups ripe bananas, mashed
1/3 cup low fat natural yoghurt
2 tbsp honey
2 large eggs
¼ cup olive oil
Heat oven to 180 deg C, mix all dry ingredients together. Mix wet ingredients together and then fold carefully into dry ingredients until combined. Pour into a greased loaf tin and put in the oven for 50 minutes until golden brown. Can be stored in the fridge for a few days.
