sugar free banana bread recipe

This is my favourite recipe at the moment. It’s from Jude Blereau’s Wholefood cookbook. I make variations of this all the time -sometimes without any eggs, sometimes without the walnuts or raisins, sometimes without the butter. It is important to toast the walnuts in the oven for 5 minutes or so, to improve the flavour. Use good quality walnuts as you’ll notice the difference. The original recipe doesn’t have eggs, but I prefer the texture with eggs and it seems to keep longer. When I don’t add eggs I need a bit more yoghurt and milk. When the bananas are really ripe, black, soft and squishy, I don’t add as many dates. Sometimes I use stevia for added sweetness (up to 1 tablespoon of granulated stevia). I also add in vanilla -either extract or powder.

I whip this up in my thermomix as it purees the bananas and dates in a flash. For a more rustic cake, you can chop by hand.

Banana cake

1 cup whole wheat flour (wheat or spelt)

1 cup unbleached all purpose flour (wheat or spelt)

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp mixed spice

1/2 cup golden raisins

1/2 cup roughly chopped toasted walnuts

1/2 cup fresh dates, seeded and chopped

3 very ripe medium size bananas, mashed

2 bananas, extra, sliced

5 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

3-4 large eggs (optional)*

1/2 cup yoghurt

1/2 cup milk (dairy or soy)

Preheat oven to 170C fanforced.

Lightly grease a large loaf tin and line with baking paper.

Place dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix to combine. Add walnuts, dates and raisins and stir through.

Add mashed bananas and all other ingredients and gently mix (add extra milk if required, so the batter moves well over the spoon as you mix). *Add eggs here if you are going to use them.

Place in loaf pan and bake for 50-70 minutes, until golden and cooked in the centre.

Remove from oven and leave for 15 minutes in the tin, then turn out onto a cake rack.

 

thermomix instructions:

No need to mash bananas or chop dates first. 

Place bananas and dates in thermomix and blend on speed 4 for 5-10 seconds or until smooth. Add yoghurt, milk, butter, eggs* and blend on speed 4 for a further 5 seconds until combined.

Mix flours, baking powder and spices, then add to bowl and blend slowly for approx 5 secs on speed 2 to incorporate.

Add raisins and walnuts and blend on speed 1 for a few seconds to fold in.

If the mixture is too stiff, add extra milk and blend slowly on speed 1 until the mixture is moist (if you are not using eggs, this may be an extra 1/2 cup milk).