Moist Whole Wheat Banana Bread

This is the comment thread for the Breadtopia blog post originally published here:

To leave a comment, click the Reply button below

If you do not see the "Reply" button, you will need to log in or register an account. Please click the blue "Log In" button in the upper right of the page. :arrow_upper_right:

I might have to try this recipe. I have always used my tried and true banana bread recipe and it always turns out moist, tender and delicious but I’ve never put in any spices. I have also (almost) always used half whole wheat and half all-purpose flour.

Here is a handy technique that I use to make the whole thing go faster. Thought I’d share it with you:

I put the bananas in the bowl first and then use an electric hand mixer to mash them good. Only takes seconds! I have never weighed my bananas–just eyeball 3 medium sized well ripened (black, almost) bananas.

Then I stir in the fat, eggs, vanilla and sugar into that plus a little milk. Then, by hand using a spatula I gently fold in the pre-mixed dry ingredients (flour, salt, soda, b. powder) and nuts. This gentle mixing keeps the gluten from forming too much, (I don’t like rubbery quick breads.) There is even a little bit of flour to be seen here and there in the mix before I put it in the loaf pan.

Hope my ideas help someone.

I think the next loaf of banana bread I make will have some cinnamon and nutmeg in it and will be 100% whole wheat.

Thank you Breadtopia for all your VERY useful help and recipes!!

2 Likes

Thank you Annie that sounds really good!

HI There! Has anyone ever tried adding buckwheat and spitting the 2 c ww with buckwheat and whole wheat flour? Also does the ww need to be ww pastry flour?
Thoughts!?
Thanks
Roma Woman

I can answer this part. The flour can easily be regular ww flour. That’s how I make banana bread and it’s great.

The link to “quickly ripen” bananas is broken. It takes you right back to the recipe page. I would love to know how to ripen bananas when they are not.

This link doesn’t work for me either but just did a quick search in google and came across this hack for ripening bananas super fast. Don’t know if this was in the original link or not but looks like a neat idea.

I made a spin-off of this recipe, using avocado and yogurt instead of butter. It was so moist and delicious, and the color was neat, vibrant with green flecks – I recommend it if you’re out of butter or trying to use other fats. (I also did some shifting of other ingredients to use what I had on hand.)⁠

Ingredients for this variation
½ large avocado⁠
¼ cup plain nonfat yogurt⁠
¾ cup white or brown sugar⁠
2 large eggs⁠
1 teaspoon baking soda⁠
½ teaspoon salt⁠
1 teaspoon vanilla extract⁠
3 large bananas, mashed ⁠
1½ - 2 cups whole wheat or high extraction flour (use the lower amount of flour if you want the bread to be pudding-like)⁠
1 cup chopped toasted pecans⁠
½ cup dark chocolate chips

In terms of method, cream the avocado, yogurt, and sugar just like you would butter and sugar…and keep going with the instructions. My bake time was 15 minutes longer – 75 minutes, perhaps because of the excess moisture.




1 Like

Ever since i was a kid i’ve had an aversion to butter. I don’t mind it disguised in a finished baked product but can’t bring myself to bake with it. Love your idea for a butter substitute. Not using butter really limits me but looks like you’ve found a way around this. Is there a formula on how to use these two ingredients as a replacement?

The amount of avocado I used was more about volume than substance because banana bread is so forgiving. (Egg substitution would be dicier since it’s a binder.)

There IS a phenomenon of avocado turning bitter when cooked (which I learned about from a person on Instagram after I posted about the bread).
Brief research didn’t yield why this happens, just that some cooking conditions do result in bitterness – but this batter cooked at 350F for 75 minutes results in zero bitterness.

As for nutrition content, avocado is mostly water even though it reads as super fatty in my mouth.

One-half of an avocado (100g) has 14.7g of fat.

100g butter has 81 grams fat.

P.S. I bet my cholesterol would be so much lower if I had an aversion to butter and cheese… sigh

1 Like

Thank you Melissa.

Makes sense. This is just for fat content, not as a binder.

I’d venture a guess that the bitterness might be the oils in avocado not suiting high temperature when baking.

It’s confusing for sure, since refined avocado oil has a very high smoke point of 520°F.

Guess two :wink:

Oxidation. Avocados easily oxidise, this is what makes them turn brown, which may cause a change in the taste.

After this i’m out of guesses.

All I can gather is that the heat-bitter reaction is related to
molecules called oxylipins.

Either the temp of the cooked bread was too low to induce this bitterness or something in the batter deactivated the oxylipins…