I baked this rich, flavor-packed bread a couple of weeks ago at work. To be honest, I kindof made do with what I was able to find in my pantry and used The Best Recipe's Banana Bread recipe as a reference. Everyone concluded that it was the best banana bread we'd enjoyed in the office (we have a little thing for banana bread). I substituted 1 cup of spelt flour for 1 of the 2 cups of white flour, as I wanted to kick up the health factor a bit. Spelt is an ancient grain that's got a huge amount of fiber in it because it is ground with the bran intact. I was a little afraid it might make the bread too tough, but the texture was delightful.
Because there is such a high ratio of nuts in this bread, it's quite hearty, which is great because you're getting a good amount of protein from the nuts in addition to the fiber from the spelt flour. Additionally I used kefir in this recipe, which is a wonderful natural probiotic, but you could use buttermilk or plain yogurt instead.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 cup spelt or whole wheat flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 + 1/4 cups slivered almonds
- 2 extremely ripe large bananas, mashed
- 1/4 cup kefir (you could also use plain yogurt or buttermilk)
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 6 Tablespoons butter, melted and set aside to cool
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions:
1. Preheat over to 350
2. Use non-stick spray or butter to grease all sides of your loaf pan. Then add a Tablespoon or so of flour and shake it all around, making sure all sides and edges are covered in flour. Tap the side of the loaf pan to remove any superfluous flour - you want it to be very lightly floured.
3. Combine your dry ingredients in a large bowl: flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and ONE CUP of the almonds (you'll use the other 1/4 cup to top the loaf before baking). Toss all ingredients together so the almonds are coated in the flour.
4. In a separate bowl, mix together the mashed bananas, kefir, eggs, butter, vanilla extract and almond extract.
5. Gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, combining them as minimally as you can. Keep in mind the more you mix this batter, the tougher your final product is going to be - as you've now activated the gluten in both flours with the addition of the wet ingredients. It's better to have patches of dry ingredients when you add your mixture to the pan than a completely smooth batter that's been over-worked.
6. Using a rubber spatula, scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan
7. Sprinkle the additional 1/4 cup of almonds on top of the batter
8. Bake until the almonds on top are toasted and a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out with small crumbs attached - about 40-60 minutes. Start checking the cake every five minutes after the cake's been baking for 40 minutes.
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| I used good quality almond extract and Mexican vanilla extract from Nielsen Massey |
9. Remove from the oven and cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer it to a wire rack to cool
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| Add caption |
This cake was definitely best when I served it warm - but it was still tasting delicious after 3 days!
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| Coating the almonds in flour before incorporating them into the wet ingredients keeps them from sinking to the bottom |
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| Dense with almond goodness |
Come fabulous!
