Saturday, 22 June 2013

Banana-cinnamon Bread with a healthy twist


This is one of my favourite cakes/bread. I make it every time I have bananas that are turning soft and no one would eat. It is super simple to make and requires no artificial ingredients except for baking powder. There are more healthy twists than what I have just mentioned. I have used whole wheat along with white flour and Psyllium husk (Isabgol), which makes it healthier and full of roughage. 

Ingredients

2 Eggs
1/2 cup of white flour
1/2 cup of whole wheat powder (Atta)
2 ripe bananas 
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil or
125 grams Unsalted Butter (at room temperature)
1 teaspoon Cinnamon powder
1 teaspoon Baking powder
4-5 tablespoons of Psyllium husk
Almonds/ walnuts- handful, chopped
1/4 cup milk


The first few things I do when I am baking are:

A. Prepare the baking dish, 

Step 1-Apply oil or butter inside the dish



Step 2- Dust the dish with flour. Baking dish is ready.



B. Pre-heat the oven at 160-180 degree Celsius

C. Sieve the white flour and baking powder together. This is an important step for baking soft and fluffy cakes. Sieving makes sure that there are no lumps and that there is enough air in the flour.  

D. Mash the bananas


E. Mix all the powders including the husk.




Now it would be easier to prepare the bread batter :) 

  • Beat the eggs till they are white and fluffy. I use a hand mixer but you can use your hands/ fork/ egg beater, whatever you are comfortable with.


  • Add sugar to the eggs. Add half first, beat well and then add the rest and beat more.
  • Beat the butter/oil with this mixture adding small portions at a time.  


The softness and fluffiness of a bread/cake depends on how well you beat it, so don't shy away from it.


Once the batter starts looking somewhat like this, keep the beater aside and take a spatula to mix the other ingredients. Add the mashed banana first, mix. Then the almonds or walnuts.


Next add the powders in small portions. Mix them using the cut and fold technique. The cut and fold method makes sure more air is added in the batter making the end result fluffy. In the end add milk, mix well and pour into the cake dish.



Bake for 20-25 mins or till the knife/toothpick comes out clean.

Let it cool for at least 20 minutes before you try to remove it from the baking dish. Slice and eat it all up- alone or with your loved ones.






2 comments:

  1. Why did you add isabgol in this cake? what if I want to avoid that?

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  2. Hi Ankur,

    I added Isabgol because I wanted to make it healthier and full of roughage. You can obviously avoid that completely.In case you want to make the regular Banana bread then please also remove Atta and milk from your ingredient list. The Milk is added only to make the cake softer because we are using so much roughage. And instead of 1/2 cup maida, use a full cup. Rest of the recipe and steps remain the same.

    Happy Baking. Tell me how it turned out :)

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