WeThree: Whole Wheat Banana Bread

A few weeks back I had a sudden craving for banana bread, and spent the next few days reading through recipes I found on Pinterest. I narrowed it down to two, but ultimately decided on the loaf that included whole wheat flour and buttermilk because (shockingly) these were two things that just happened to be sitting happily in my kitchen. It’s funny, but banana bread is one of those things that to me, tastes the same no matter what the recipe is or who makes it. (I also feel this way about beer, but I have never met someone else in life who agrees). It’s always delicious, always a treat, and always seems to last longer than any other baked good. I ate a slice with an egg for breakfast for just over a week and really was sad to see it go. Plus, you know, it feels super breakfast-y and healthy with bananas and whole wheat flour.

Ingredients:

-1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

-3/4 cup granulated sugar

-2 eggs

-1 cup mashed banana (from ~3 bananas)

-1 ½ cups whole wheat flour

-1/2 cup all-purpose flour

-1 teaspoon baking soda

-1/2 teaspoon salt

-1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

-1/2 cup buttermilk

Directions:

-Preheat your oven to 325◦. Grease a 9x5” loaf pan.

-Mix the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. You can do this in your stand-mixer, with your hand-mixer, or if you are like me and own none of the above, with a pastry cutter! (It works).

-Crack in your eggs, one at a time, beating until fully incorporated after each addition.

-Stir in your mashed banana.

-In another bowl, mix your dry ingredients with a whisk: whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

-Add a few spoonfuls of the dry mixture to the butter mixture and combine until incorporated. Then, do the same with the buttermilk. Continue on in this manner, alternating, until all the ingredients are incorporated. (You should start and end with the dry mixture).

-Pour your final mixture into the lightly greased loaf pan and bake for about 1 hour. (I needed about an extra 10 minutes). Test for doneness by inserting a skewer into the center of the loaf. It should come out clean.

-Cool in the pan for 15-20 minutes, and then transfer to a rack to cool completely.