I came across this banana bread recipe in Sainsbury’s Magazine and thought I’d give it a go one slow moving Sunday afternoon. As you can probably guess, it’s a healthy version of banana cake using wholemeal flour, agave nectar and plenty of mushy bananas (the blacker the better). I pimped the recipe slightly by adding some oats, toasted nuts and dates to the mix for extra natural sweetness and it turned pretty well. I am pleased to say it is ridiculously easy to make too…
What you need:
- 220g wholemeal flour
- 200g self raising flour
- 60g oats
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 400g mashed black banana (nice and overripe)
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 3 large eggs, beaten
- 6 big tbsps of agave nectar (or golden syrup)
- 125g chopped dates
- 150ml natural yoghurt
- 50g chopped toasted pecans
- 50g chopped toasted walnuts
And here’s what to do with it all…
- Heat oven to 160 C / 140 C fan oven / Gas mark 3
- Grease and line a loaf tin with baking paper (allow a bit extra all the way round to allow the cake to come up a bit)
- In a big bowl mix the flours, oats, cinnamon, bicarb, baking powder and large pinch of salt
- In another bowl combine the bananas, dates, syrup, eggs, yoghurt and nuts (keeping back a handful for later) then pour this in to the dry mixture, mixing quickly
- Pour the lovely mixture into the tin, and scatter the remaining handful of nuts over the top
- Bake for 1 hr 10mins – 20mins or until a skewer comes out clean
- Tastes even better slathered in butter (but then I guess that ruins the healthy thing)
