BANANA WALNUT BREAD OR MUFFINS (OIL & WHEAT FREE)

There are many banana bread recipes, & I'm always looking for ways to improve them.  This one I came up with is a combination of 2 recipes I like, a 3rd one I haven't tried before, & my own modifications.  I used spelt flour & oat flour, but you can use regular wheat flour if you prefer.  Spelt & oat make a great bread that I prefer to all-
purpose flour bread: moist & chewy on the inside, & crisp on the outside.   The orange zest makes a nice balance to the sweetness of this bread.  

INGREDIENTS

Dry
1 cup	spelt flour
½ cup	Oat bran (grind rolled oats into flour with a food processor or coffee grinder if you don’t have oat bran on hand)
2 Tbsp	Ground flax seed (grind whole flax seeds if that’s all you have)
2.5 tsp	Baking powder
2/3 cup	Turbinado sugar
1 tsp	Nutmeg (add cinnamon, too if you like)
¼ tsp	Salt
Wet
2-3	Bananas, mashed (to yield about 1 cup; I used 3)
1 cup	Strong coffee (decaf is okay)
2	Eggs, beaten (or 4 egg whites)
5 Tbsp	Applesauce, butter, extra light olive oil, grapeseed oil, or plain yogurt (or any mixture of these).
1	Orange, zested. (Eat the orange soon after zesting, otherwise it will dry out.).  You can use a lemon or tangerine if you don’t have an orange.
2.5 tsp	Vanilla extract
½ cup	Walnut pieces

PREPARATION

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2.  Mix all of the dry ingredients (except the walnuts) well in a large bowl.

3.  In a medium bowl or 2 cup measuring cup, mash the bananas, pour in the coffee, & let soak a few minutes.  

4.  In a small bowl, beat the eggs, then mix in the applesauce (&/or oil/butter), zest, vanilla, & walnuts.

5.  Pour the egg mixture into the dry mixture & mix just to combine.

6.  Add the banana coffee mixture & mix just to combine.

7.  Pour into a greased bread pan (mine is 9x5”).  Bake for 50-60 minutes or until an inserted toothpick or pin comes out clean.

SUGGESTIONS

• If you would like to make muffins, pour the batter into muffin cups & bake at 350 for about 20 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean/dry.
• Add [dark] chocolate chips for a dessert treat.
• If you don't have applesauce, oat flour, or ground flaxseed, use a food processor to turn a whole apple into applesauce, rolled oats (not instant or quick) into oat flour, & whole flaxseed into ground flaxseed.  See a post about it here.

INGREDIENT HEALTH BENEFIT INFORMATION

Spelt 

Oatmeal/oat bran 

Flaxseed

Banana

Apple

Walnut

Egg

*ORIGINAL RECIPE CREDITS:

1.  Cook Right For Your Type Banana Date Bread (spelt/oat flour idea)

2.  Unknown.  My former go-to banana bread recipe is handwritten into the front page on an old cookbook.  I used to write my own recipes into the free spaces of my cookbooks, so I think I may have made this unknown one up.

3.  Moosewood Cookbook  Banana Bread (the coffee soaked banana idea came from this recipe).

YOU DON’T HAVE A ZESTER?

See this post for substitution ideas

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

These other bread recipes

I like to listen to music while I cook (if my husband isn't watching TV).  Bananas make me think of Harry Belafonte, so this song has been stuck in my head all morning.  I never noticed how badly Winona "danced" to this when I was a kid!

Following Eat Right For Your Type?  Click here to jump to Dr. D'Adamo's Typebase Index to see how the ingredients in this recipe work for you.

Do you want to learn more about the Blood Type Diet?  See the links I have posted in the left column of this site under the heading "Learn More About the Blood Type Diet."