Healthier Banana Bread (Lower Fat, Flax, Ww Flour, Less Sugar)

Submitted by fmikef

"I am trying to gradually shift my family to healthier foods. Rather than going to no fat, all flax and no added sweetener--here is my compromise."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 15mins
• Ingredients: 9
• Yields: 2 Loaves
• Serves: 24

ingredients

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 4 -6 bananas (dark)
• 4 cups whole wheat flour (pastry flour is fine)
• 1 1⁄2 cups ground flax seeds
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs (or egg substitute)
• 1⁄2 cup oil
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1⁄2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Spray 2 loaf pans with non-stick spray.
3. Mash bananas.
4. Combine sugar, oil and egg--mixing until creamy.
5. Blend in mashed bananas.
6. In a separate bowl, combine whole wheat flour, ground flax seed, salt, baking soda. (Add the nuts to the dry ingredients at this point). Combine wet and dry ingredients, but do not overmix.
7. Pour batter into loaf pans and bake approximately 1 hour-testing with a toothpick at the hour, and then as needed.
8. Note: Because the batter is dense you will need to watch the baking time to be sure it is adequate--don't only go by color, flax seed will add darkness.

Reviews

[fitnfamished]

I was suspicious with 4 cups of flour PLUS 1 1/2 cups flax? Didn't think there was nearly enough moist ingredients to balance it out. Dense is an understatement! Even after adding an extra egg and more oil, it still came out HARD. I did salvage it by making it into french toast which was quite good. I will tweek this recipe as I appreciate the effort to up the healthy factor, starting with specifying banana size. I had 3 very large bananas so thought that would suffice. I'd also eliminate a cup of flour and add an extra 1/2 of walnuts as it seemed there were very few for 2 loaves.

 

[Barb 3663]

Most banana breads are really cakes. This one is BREAD. The recipe doesn't make batter, it makes dough. It wasn't what I was expecting, but a slice of this, popped in the toaster for breakfast is fabulous.

 

[Vegan Freak]

Just an for future reference: Flax IS fat.

 

[CaramelPie]

Was this ever good! I had 5 (on the large side) bananas that were needing to be used. This is the perfect recipe. My new favorite. I used regular whole wheat flour, 2 whole eggs, Splenda/brown sugar blend (1/2 cup), and Enova oil. I didn't "cream" the bananas, just mashed them with a potato masher, so there are small chunks of banana throughout. It tasted wonderful hot, but, to me, even better cold. You have to try this one!

 

[evewitch]

I was a bit worried about this, as it turned out *very* dense. (I never tasted it myself, but my family seemed to like it.) It was easy to put together. I am not sure I added enough banana, as I only used 3 large ones.