Low Fat Banana Bread

The other morning, I woke up at 10AM (ah, the life of a college student) with a pile of mushy bananas in my room. I looked at the clock and started some calculating in my head. I need to be at work at 1PM, which left me 3 hours to make banana bread, get dressed, go to brunch and get to work. Definitely enough time.

These bananas were perfect for banana bread.

Well, it turns out I'm not super efficient in the mornings, and 3 hours is really 2 hours when the banana bread takes an hour to bake (and you have to watch it the whole time). Fortunately, everything worked out.

This banana bread is moist, tender and full of banana flavor. Great for when you have a lot of mushy bananas (and who ever has just one brown banana?). Use whole wheat flour for extra nutrition, white flour for extra convenience; spread with Nutella for extra delicious.

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Low Fat High Banana Bread
makes 1 loaf

Equipment
loaf pan
butter melting device (or room temp butter)
2 mixing bowls
fork
oven
scale and/or measuring instruments

Ingredients
4 ripe bananas (around 14oz. worth)
2T softened/melted butter
1c (125g) sugar
1t vanilla extract
1 egg
2T (30g) milk

1.25c (170g) AP flour OR whole wheat flour
1t baking soda
0.5t baking powder
0.25t salt

75g walnuts, chopped (optional)

Directions
1. Mash the bananas together with the butter. (A good potato masher makes this really easy. Otherwise, use a fork.) When they're homogenous and liquidy, add the sugar, vanilla, egg and milk, and mix thoroughly.
2. In a separate bowl (or in the center of your first one if you're skimping on dishes) mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
3. Mix dry and wet, folding them together until the spots of dry flour have just disappeared. Fold in the walnuts now if you're using them.
4. Let the batter rest for 10 minutes (to let everything hydrate and the banana flavor permeate). Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 350°F.
5. Pour the batter into a (preferably greased) loaf pan and bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. [If you prefer gooey banana bread, feel free to underbake.]
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Do you prefer green bananas, yellow bananas or brown bananas? Let me know by leaving a comment or emailing me at piquantprose [at] gmail [dot] com.