Healthy, Fat-Free Banana Bread

Banana bread is one of the most popular flavored breads, because it is easy to make, delicious, and a great way to use up those bananas going black in the fruit bowl.

It is not really bread in the true sense of the word, because the mixture doesn’t form dough to be kneaded and there is no leavening agent, like yeast, in it. It is more of a moist and full of flavor cake.

Everyone has their own banana bread recipe that keeps tweaking to make it perfect and here is one that was tweaked to make it healthier.

In this healthy version of the banana bread:

• the saturated fat of butter or shortening was replaced with unsweetened applesauce
• the all-purpose flour was replaced with whole wheat flour to add more dietary fiber
• and the content of added sugar was cut in half.

Despite the fact that this recipe doesn’t use a cup of butter, as many others do; the end result is still moist and tasty banana bread.

3 medium overripe bananas, mashed

½ cup applesauce, unsweetened

½ cup brown sugar

2 egg whites

1½ cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

¾ cup coarsely chopped almonds (optional)

Note: Almonds contain healthy fat. For fat-free banana bread, do not add them to the recipe.

1. Preheat the oven to 220°C (430°F)
2. In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients in the order given above. There is no need for a mixer for this recipe.
3. Pour the mixture into a buttered and floured baking pan.
4. Bake for about 40 to 50 min, depending on your oven. After 20 min, cover with aluminum foil for the remaining cooking time. The banana bread is ready when a toothpick inserted in the bread comes out almost clean.

A fresh loaf of banana bread can be a very nice homemade gift for friends, family, co-workers, teachers or neighbors.

To make banana bread for gifts, bake them in mini or small sized paper loaf pans. They are really convenient and you don’t have to worry about getting your pans back. Wrap the banana bread in a colorful cellophane bag and tie it with a decorative ribbon. Add a handmade or store bought gift tag for a personal touch.

• Bananas don’t grow on trees - The banana plant is called “banana tree”, but is technically an herb (herbaceous plant). While banana plants may grow to be 10 to 25 feet tall, their stems do not contain any true woody tissue (they are just many leaves wrapped tightly around a single stem), which makes them giant herbs. They are from the same family as ginger, turmeric, and cardamom.
• Bananas are berries – Banana fruits are botanically classified as berries, because they have pulpy pericarp and more than one seed inside them. So, banana is a berry, growing on herb plant.
• Bananas have seeds – The commercially grown bananas that we eat have seeds but they are very small and sterile. They are not capable of producing new plants. Wild bananas, however, have plenty of small seeds that are used to grow new banana plants.