Low Fat Banana Bread
I know I’m late in the game and I have a gazillion excuses. Banana Bread became the recipe of the lockdown. It seemed everyone had some overripe bananas that needed to be used up, which isn’t all that uncommon even in the best of times. While I’ve had my own Banana Bread recipe on the blog for a while, but with many people had trouble finding butter and eggs, a lot of us were baking and cooking with, and eating, whatever we could scrounge up in our pantries, refrigerators, kitchen cabinets, and freezers.
I usually have plenty of bulk chocolate for baking on hand, but was caught short when even grocery stores unexpectedly ran out of bars of baking chocolate. Fortunately, a local bakery came to my rescue with chocolate, but I had a small bag of chocolate chips on hand, which aren’t easy to come by around here (they sell them at G. Detou,) and decided to put those to use, along with some rapidly ripening bananas.
I know that some people cringe when they hear words like lowfat or vegan or squid. But lowfat isn’t bad…unless you consider espresso, blueberries, champagne, garlic, baguettes (unslathered with butter), whiskey, tangerines, dill pickles, cherries, and tarragon bad. In which case, I can’t help you. But if you’re looking for a reduced-fat banana bread, I got ya.
I did get to put my precious chocolate chips to use in this bread. Since chocolate chips are designed not to melt, and hold their shape when baked, they worked really well in this banana bread.
They stayed distinct, so you got one in every (or every other) bite, rather than melting away. If you want to skip the chocolate chips, you can replace them with toasted nuts or leave them out. And if you want to accompany it with a glass of champagne or whiskey, or a shot of espresso, be my guest.
Low(er) Fat Banana Bread
- 1 1/2 cups (210g) flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder, preferably aluminum free
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup (90g) light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 large egg white
- 1 cup (250g) banana puree, made from very ripe bananas
- 1/2 cup (120g) sour cream or plain yogurt, whole-milk or lowfat
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2-3/4 cup (80-120g) chocolate chips
- 1 1/2 tablespoons coarse sugar, such as turbinado (optional)
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC.) Butter a 9-inch (23cm) loaf pan and line the bottom with a sheet of parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and sugars. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the egg, egg white, banana puree, sour cream or yogurt, and vanilla. Stir not too vigorously with a spatula until the ingredients are almost completely incorporated (don't overmix), then fold in the chocolate chips.
- Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle the sugar evenly over the top and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out relatively clean, with just a few crumbs sticking to it, about 45 minutes. Remove the cake from the oven and let cool on a wire rack.