Easy, Healthy Banana Bread Recipe | Alt-Baking Bootcamp | Well+Good
- This is Alt-Baking Bootcamp,
your crash course in healthier baking.
(gentle music)
- Today we're tackling banana bread,
but we're gonna make ita little bit healthier
by making it gluten, grain,and refined sugar-free.
- And what I love about banana bread is
that it's moist, it's sweet,and it's very banana-y
and this is the OG version.
- Should we try it?
- Let's do it.
- It's good.
- Tastes a little processed to me.
- It does.
I don't know how good you're gonna feel
after eating slice or two of this.
I think we can do better though
and make it a lot healthier.
- For sure.
- Alright, let's do this.
So first, we're gonna start with bananas.
- You want to get some overripe bananas.
They don't have to betotally black and brown,
but you do want to see that speckle
because it means the starch
in the banana has turned to sugar.
Plus, they'll be easier to mash.
- This recipe is great becausebananas are naturally sweet
so you can actually makeit without any added sugar.
But we're gonna add a littlebit of maple syrup to this
just to up the sweetness a little bit
and we're gonna add some vanilla extra
to accentuate the sweetness.
- Maple syrup is about the same sweetness
as regular sugar so you cansubstitute it one for one
in most baking recipes.
However, because it isliquid, it adds a little bit
of moisture so you want to make sure
that you have that kindof moisture content right
for your final batter.
It also caramelizes a little bit slower
than regular sugar so youdon't get as much brownness
on your banana bread.
So it's not all the way brown,but a nice golden brown.
- Exactly, should we add some vanilla?
- Yeah.
- So this recipe calls for twoteaspoons of vanilla extract
and two tablespoons of ghee
or as I mentioned, youcould use grass-fed butter
or coconut oil.
Next, we're gonna add two eggs.
We're kind of living on the edge here.
- Just cracking right into the bowl.
- Cracking right into the bowl,
but you may want to crackthem in a separate bowl first
so that you don't getany shells in your dough.
- If you don't have a stand mixer,
you can always mash the bananas by hand
and then use a whiskto mix it all together.
- A little chunkiness isn'tthe worst thing in the world.
So we love bananas becausethey're naturally sweet of course
but we also love all the vitamins
and minerals that they have.
They're full of B6,potassium, and vitamin C.
- Eggs are a great ingredientbecause they add moisture,
leavening power, andemulsify the batter a little
so you get that nice domeon top of your banana bread
and to make sure that yourbatter is mixed thoroughly.
- They're also high in proteinand omega 3 fatty acids,
which are anti-inflammatory.
When I go to the grocery story,
I look for organic, pasture-raised,certified humane eggs.
It can be really confusingwhen shopping for eggs
because there are a lot ofdifferent labels on there,
but that's what I look for.
Alright, now let's mix this
it doesn't really matterhow long you mix it for.
You don't have to bethat scientific about it,
but just make sureeverything's fully incorporated
and mixed well.
Alright, this looks good.
As you can see, it's pretty liquid.
Our bananas were soft to begin with
so the KitchenAid mixed it up really well.
If you're not using a KitchenAidor your bananas aren't
that soft, you can alwaysmash them with a fork
to give it a little bit of an assist.
- So we're gonna start withone cup of almond flour
and a quarter cup of coconut flour.
Grain-free flours are an awesome way
to make your baked goods a lot healthier.
We talked about it in our last episode
for chocolate chip cookiesso you can check that out
to learn more.
But as I mentioned, coconutflour and almond flour,
they mix rather well tocounterbalance the kind
of drying effect that coconut flour has
and almond flour introduces that fattiness
that you want for that nicesoft crumb in your baked goods.
- And not using white glutenor grain-containing flours
will make this have a glycemic load,
which means it will spikeyour blood sugar levels less
and make it less likely thatyou'll be craving sweet foods
all day long.
- And now we're gonna go withone teaspoon of baking soda.
I'm kind of a science nerd.
I love baking soda becauseit's the main leavener
of our recipe, assisted by the eggs.
As it hits heat, it's gonna make
these little carbon dioxidebubbles in our banana bread,
which causes it to rise.
- We're also gonna usehalf a teaspoon of salt,
which is gonna give us thatsweet, salt combination,
which we also talked aboutin our cookie recipe,
so don't forget to check that out,
and half a teaspoon of cinnamon.
Cinnamon is one of my favorite spices
and it's one of nature'skind of magical things
because we're just, we just naturally want
to put cinnamon on sweet foods, right,
but cinnamon actually helpsregulate our blood sugar levels,
which again means that whenwe're eating sweet foods,
it's not gonna spike ourblood sugar levels as much
and have us craving more.
So be sure the put a lot ofcinnamon on your sweet foods.
Now we need a fork.
Oh, good, you got one.
Make sure you mix the dryingredients really thoroughly.
You don't want there to be any clumps
because having clumps inyour bread is not good,
like a dry clump of almond flour,
that's not gonna taste good.
So make sure you get allthose little bits out.
I think that looks pretty good, right?
And let's dump this inwith the banana mixture.
Now we're just gonna turn this back on
and mix until it's fully incorporated.
It really doesn't need that long,
but if you are using a mixer like this,
I still recommend that you take a spatula
and just give a good whirl
because sometimes there aresome dry parts on the bottom.
You just want to makesure that there isn't any
of that good egg, bananamixture stuck on the bottom.
You want to get it fullyincorporated with the flour
so that our dough will bake evenly.
Okay, that looks great.
So next we're just gonna putthe dough in the bread pan.
The dough is thick so you gonna have
to use your spatula to even it out.
Depending on the depth of your pan,
it should fill about 1/3 of the way up.
So don't freak out if it doesn'tgo all the way to the top.
It's really important thatyou smooth out the dough
and make sure that ithits the edges of the pan.
The dough is sticky, it is thick.
That's all the moisture,it's all the banana,
the gooeyness, the yummyness.
We're gonna want all of that,
but you just got to work it to the ends.
And if you get any up on the sides,
you can just a papertowel to clean it off.
That looks great.
So last thing we're gonna dois decorate our banana bread
before we throw it in the oven.
So we are going to take a fresh banana,
one that's not brown, sothis is gonna be less sweet
than our super brown onesthat we used in the dough,
and we're just gonna cut in half
and then we're gonna, there we go.
I'm gonna arrange them ina pretty little design.
That's a big banana.
You want to press the banana down
so that it really gets in the dough.
I like this design, but youcould, you know, cut slices.
You could do whatever you want.
Feel free to get creative with it.
So now, we bake it.
We have our preheated to 350 degrees
and we're gonna bake thisfor about 30 minutes.
- Sometimes I eat bananabread for breakfast.
- It's really good with the coffee right?
- Mm-hmm.
- Or dessert or a snack.
- All the time basically.
(laughs)
- So you'll know whenyou banana bread is done
when you stick a cake testerinto the thickest part
of the bread and it comes out clean.
You can also use a knife for this,
but if you see any partof dough on the knife
or the cake tester,
you'll know that itneeds a few more minutes.
Alright, so we're justgonna put the cake tester
in the thickest part of the bread
and it came up clean.
So I think that we can eat it.
- Yeah, let's do it.
What if I drop this whole thing right now?
- See how it just comesright out of the pan?
So easy.
Should we cut into it?
- Yeah.
- Alright, it's nice and warm.
Alright, let's try it.
Mmm, honestly I like thismore than the original.
- It's super soft and moist.
- And it doesn't have thatlike processed oily flavor,
but it's still really sweet
and you can get such a greattaste of banana in there.
- Yeah, it really tastes like real bananas
and not like weird fake bananas.
- Totally, which are always better.
Really good.
It's everything I'dwant in a banana bread:
spongy, slightly sweet, not overly sweet,
lots of banana flavor.
I think we nailed it.
Thank you so much for watching.
This is Alt-Baking Bootcamp.
If you want to see us make other recipes,
please comment with whatyou want to make below.
- I'm Jenny Dorsey.
- I'm Mia Rigden.
- And we'll catch you next time.
- Don't forget to subscribe.
(gentle music)
To get notified about new video uploads, subscribe to Well+Good's channel: [https://www.youtube.com/c/Wellandgood] Welcome back to Alt-Baking Bootcamp: your guide to healthier baking! In this episode, chef and nutritionist, Mia Rigden, and chef and writer, Jenny Dorsey, show us how to make healthy banana bread that's gluten-free, low sugar, and SUPER easy to make! 🍌🍌🍌 Not only do they show how to make the recipe, they also explain just what makes it delicious without using butter, white flour, or refined sugar. Mia explains all of the nutritional benefits, while Jenny explains the chemistry behind certain swaps to make your healthy recipes just right. #healthybananabread #altbakingbootcamp #wellandgood RECIPE: Bake time: 30 minutes Prep time: 10-15 minutes Serves 8-10 Ingredients 3 bananas (2 overripe with brown spots, 1 fresh) 1 cup almond flour ¼ cup coconut flour 2 organic pasture raised eggs 2 tbsp maple syrup 2 tbsp ghee (or grass-fed butter, or coconut oil) 2 tsp vanilla extract 1 tsp baking soda ½ tsp cinnamon ½ tsp salt Directions 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, and line a 9 inch loaf pan with parchment paper (line the middle, letting the edges of the paper fall over the edge of the pan, and grease the sides with butter or ghee for easy removal). 2. Lightly mash two overripe bananas and add to bowl of a standing mixing. Add ghee or butter, maple syrup, vanilla, and eggs, and mix until thoroughly combined. 3. In a separate bowl, mix together dry ingredients. 4. Add dry ingredients to the banana mixture and mix until incorporated. Turn off mixer and use a spatula to give the dough a good stir. 5. Place dough in loaf pan. The dough is thick, so use a spatula to even it out. 6. Cut your fresh banana in half lengthwise and press into the top of the dough. 7. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. 8. When finished, use the edges of the parchment paper to lift the banana bread out of pan. Check out more from Jenny here: https://www.jennydorsey.co/ And you can find Mia here: https://www.therasalife.com/ Subscribe to Well+Good’s channel for more tasty videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/Wellandgood Be sure to check out our first episode on healthy chocolate chip cookies here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_20aY1mGxg You can find Well+Good here: Site 🖥️: https://www.wellandgood.com Instagram 📸: https://www.instagram.com/iamwellandg... Facebook 👍: https://www.facebook.com/iamwellandgood Twitter 🐤: https://twitter.com/iamwellandgood Pinterest 📌: https://www.pinterest.com/iamwellandgood/