Banana Bread with Stevia

I bought Stevia last year in Tesco and it has sat in the press since, mocking me. With all this talk of evil sugar I decided to try and use it to make cake, instead of sugar. I found this page of recipes and adapted the b-bread slightly, while sticking to the American use of cups as measurements.

A loaf-tin sized cake yield 12 slices. So, for this, calories per slice are 114, sugars only 3g and a nice dollop of protein at 3g also.

The wet ingredients all together, before mixing

I have to say that this experiment does not make me trust Stevia. The Banana Bread is nice and banana-y but not sweet at all and really tastes more bread-like than cake-like, which is not what I wanted. I ended up putting jam on it to sweeten it up, which rather defeats the low-sugar purpose of it all. Sigh. Use more Stevia in the recipe or stick to sugar? The quest continues...

INGREDIENTS

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 cup ripe banana, mashed (2 fun-sized bananas)

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

2 medium eggs

1/3 cup milk

1 1/2 cups whole wheat spelt flour

1 teaspoon bread soda

1 1/2 teaspoons stevia powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

METHOD

• Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C) and grease and/or line a loaf tin.
• In a large bowl, mix together the oil, bananas, vanilla, eggs, and milk.
• Sieve the the dry ingredients through and mix until just combined.
• Pour into the tin and bake for 55 minutes, or until a toothpick in the middle comes out clean.
• Cool in the tin for a few minutes to set, then remove and cool completely on a rack.

CHOCOLATE BANANA CAKE

Choc chips in the mix

Oh, bananas (especially Tesco ones) why do you go rotten in jig time?? Anyway, soft, blackening bananas mean only one thing: cake! And as it's our wedding anniversary today, I thought a choc banana cake would be perfect. I found this post with a great recipe at the Friday is Cake Night blog and it is fab-U-lous. We ate big wodges of it today with soya custard, after a lunch in Kariba's, while fondly remembering our lovely wedding in New York: City Hall, sunshine, Gobo Restaurant (now, sadly, no more), carrot cake and roses.

Decorated with a stencil bought in Euro2 - one of four designs

This cake is relatively healthy as it's made with no oil or butter. Again, I have kept the American measurements, in case of disaster in the change-over to metric.

At 10 slices, it makes each slice 210 kcalories. 3g of fat per slice.

With Alpro soya custard - mmm

INGREDIENTS

3 medium ripe bananas

¾ cup brown sugar

½ cup apple sauce

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 cup self-raising flour

½ cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda (bread soda, in Ireland)

¼ tsp salt

¼ cup dark chocolate chips

icing sugar to decorate (optional)

METHOD

• Preheat the oven to 350F/180C
• Grease an 8 inch round tin and line the bottom
• Combine the mashed bananas and sugar into a large mixing bowl and stir until liquidy
• Add the apple sauce, vanilla essence and egg. Stir to combine.
• Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt and mix through
• Add the chocolate chips, mix and pour into the prepared baking tin
• Bake for 30 to 35 minutes
• Cool in the tin before turning out

This day five years ago in NYC

GREAT IRISH BAKE - DAY 2 - BANANA BREAD

Great Irish Bake Banana Bread

We made banana bread for the Great Irish Bake - two loaves, one for my friend Karen to build her up after the birth of her lovely new baby, Harley. And one for us!

Great Irish Bake Donations Jar

The Great Irish Bake collection jar is filling up nicely for the children in Temple Street. And so to the cake - makes a good, sweet, banana-y loaf.

INGREDIENTS

2 over-ripe bananas
100g light brown sugar
125g wholegrain spelt flour
125g self-raising flour
50ml soya or cow's milk
50ml rapeseed oil
1 tsp baking powder
2 beaten eggs
a handful of flaked almonds

METHOD

o Preheat the oven to 160˚C
o Grease a loaf tin
o Break the peeled bananas into a bowl and whizz with the sugar (I used a hand blender)
o Add the eggs, oil and soya milk and whizz again
o Fold in the dry ingredients and pour into the loaf tin
o Scatter the flaked almonds on top
o Bake for 55 to 60 minutes. Test with a skewer.
o Gorgeous hot or cold, on its own or yogurt

VEGAN BANANA BREAD

I’ve adapted this recipe (beyond recognition really) from a Nigella recipe in the wonderful How to be a Domestic Goddess. Nigella, of course, uses booze and extra sugar, but I wanted a more modest cake. Not that there’s anything wrong with rum or sugar but I am attempting to eat healthily, post baby. Therefore, homemade cake. Ahem. Even with less sugar the cake is gorgeously sweet and moist thanks to the bananas and dates.

175gr of plain flour
2 tsps baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp salt
2tsp NoEgg mixed with 2tblsps water (or 2 beaten eggs for non vegans)
100gr of light brown sugar
125g vegan margarine, melted
100g whole seedless, soft dates
3 or 4 smallish ripe bananas
1 tsp vanilla essence

o Preheat the oven to 170˚C
o Grease a 2lb loaf tin
o Mash the bananas
o Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and bicarbonate of soda in one bowl
o In another larger bowl mix the melted sugar with the marg and beat until blended together
o Beat in NoEgg mix (or the eggs, one at a time), then the mashed bananas
o Stir in the dates and vanilla essence
o Add the flour mixture, one third at a time, mixing each portion well in
o Pour into the loaf tin and shake the tin to settle the mixture
o Bake for an hour in the middle of the oven.
o Test with a cocktail stick or skewer to see if it is baked through
o Let it cool in the tin on a wire rack