Whole Wheat Banana Walnut Bread

Posted on | December 2, 2008 | 25 Comments |

After a successful Banana Walnut Muffin experiment, I wanted to get a bit more creative on the baking front. This time I made a Banana Walnut Bread using pretty much the same recipe as the muffin, but substituted All Purpose Flour with Whole Wheat Pastry Flour and replaced most of the sugar with Maple Syrup.

Pure maple syrup is a good source of minerals,vitamins and amino acids and makes a great natural sweetener. You can substitute 1 cup of granulated sugar with 3/4th cups of maple syrup in recipes. Make sure to buy the pure maple syrup, since some of the super market versions contain corn syrup and artificial color. Read more here.

There are a couple of facts to note while using Maple Syrup in baking, which I didn’t know before making this bread and found out with a bit of research afterwards.

- Maple syrup will tend to caramelize and burn on the top and edges , so reduce the oven temperature by 25 degrees. My loaf was moist inside, but the outside crust had really hardened. Next time I have to do this at 325F.

- Maple syrup is slightly acidic in nature, which needs to be neutralized for the batter to rise and form properly. Even though my bread had risen to a satisfactory level, I would try adding 1/4 tsp extra baking soda next time.

The other substitution I made was to use Whole Wheat Pastry Flour instead of All Purpose Flour. Whole Wheat Pastry Flour will give the bread a more tender texture than Whole Wheat Flour, and makes a great substitute for APF in muffins and quick breads. Due to the low gluten and protein content, WWPF won’t work in yeast bread. My bread turned out a little bit denser than normal APF breads, but the difference was not that significant to notice. You could go for a mix of WWPF and APF in your recipes to get a lighter texture.

banana walnut bread

Ingredients

(Makes 1 loaf)

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg at room temperature
1.25 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3 large overripe bananas
1/4 cup melted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup chopped walnuts, toasted

Method

Preheat the oven to 325F.

Grease the sides and bottom of a 9×5″ loaf pan with vegetable oil or butter

Place the bananas, butter, maple syrup, vanilla, sugar and egg and beat using using an electric mixer to combine.

Sift the flour, baking soda and salt over the mixture and stir to blend till just incorporated.

Fold in the walnuts using a wooden spoon.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and spread to level the surface.

Bake for 50-60 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let stand 10 minutes before transferring to rack to cool.

Slice and serve.

Note: The above recipe is altered as per the notes in the intro section. Let me know if you have any more baking tips for me, I can really use some!

Since most of the sugar in this bread is replaced by Maple Syrup, I am sending this over to dear Meeta’s Monthly Mingle – Low Sugar Sweet Treats hosted at the Daily Tiffin.

Category: Baked Goods, Banana, Breakfast and Brunch, Nuts

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Comments

25 Responses to “Whole Wheat Banana Walnut Bread”

Raaga
December 2nd, 2008 @ 9:04 pm
Reply

Yoo-hooooooooooo! I am so proud of you.
Jyothsna
December 2nd, 2008 @ 9:27 pm
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Successful baking feels darn good!:) I’ve had a similar banana muffin recipe with me for years and haven’t tried it even once, tho’ I do bake occasionally! Thanks for all the research on bread making.
sra
December 2nd, 2008 @ 9:46 pm
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Here comes Sig the Baker! This was me 10-12 years ago – in fact, I taught myself how to bake (not v well) and only after getting married, how to operate a pressure cooker and the rest of the boring stuff! Now I don’t bake at all.
Mythili
December 2nd, 2008 @ 10:01 pm
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You are crack-a-lacking babe!!!

Hugs!
Nirmala
December 3rd, 2008 @ 12:39 am
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Welcome dear! I missed to comment u’re earlier post on the muffin try! I took gingerly got into baking some 1.5 years ago and have laid my hands in so many tries. Still my craving is not gone down. Every weekend I feel obsessed to bake “something”. After me burning my first cake (placed the cake tin right on top of the heating rod in my OTG wihout knowing that has to be placed on the wire rac k ) I had baked qiet a number of cakes till date. This loaf looks lovely. And I hadn’t seen whole wheat pastry flour here. Any substitutes ?
- sig
  December 7th, 2008 @ 4:30 pm
  Reply
  
  Hi Nirmala, I read somewhere that you can process the regular Whole Wheat Flour in a grinder and then run it through a fine sieve, but not sure if that will work. You can also use a mix of whole wheat and all purpose flour.
arundati
December 3rd, 2008 @ 3:14 am
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that’s a wonderful looking loaf… i like the nice brown hue and the texture…
Mishmash!
December 3rd, 2008 @ 5:28 am
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so u decided to wear ur baker’s cap regularly? ))what’s next?
Happy Cook
December 3rd, 2008 @ 8:00 am
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Sis ar eyou trying to give me a heart attack. MY tikker won’t take any more shicks
First it was muffin and now it is the bread.
Really wonderful to see you baking.
Looks like you are really enjoying it too.
I didn’t knwo about the maple syrup. So thankyou for the info.
Happy Cook
December 3rd, 2008 @ 8:00 am
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I mean Sig not sis
Laavanya
December 3rd, 2008 @ 10:55 am
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The maple syrup substitution must’ve been a nice touch.
varsha
December 3rd, 2008 @ 11:47 am
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Finally..Sig turned into a “baker” ..lovely bread..
Mamatha
December 3rd, 2008 @ 1:44 pm
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Great going Sig. So when can we see you recreate those gorgeous-looking desserts that you’ve blogged about in your restaurant reviews?

Thanks for those maple-syrup facts – wouldn’t have known, wouldn’t have bothered to research.
Anna
December 3rd, 2008 @ 4:33 pm
Reply

The most basic of tips, Sig but a pretty useful one , I think. Cover the loaf pan with foil loosely so that the top does not harden. Remove the foil the last 10 mins so that the top darkens and gets the top of a bread look. ANother comment–it looks like the top of your bread is cracked as well. Did you keep cracking open the oven door, girl? Cold air meeting hot air will cause cracks in your cakes or loafs. So resist the uge to open it. Hope this helps.
- sig
  December 7th, 2008 @ 9:02 am
  Reply
  
  Hey, thanks a lot for the tip Anna… I will try this the next time I bake…
  
  And no, I didn’t open the oven before it was done, I swear . I have seen the cracks on top of the bread in the pictures in my book and on lots of breads made on TV as well… so I thought it was okay. Anyway, a quick web search tells me that it is quite normal for the quickbreads especially the ones with nuts to crack…
nags
December 3rd, 2008 @ 7:29 pm
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wow! that was quick! lovely pic
RP
December 3rd, 2008 @ 9:01 pm
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Yay!! You are baking!! Finally!!! I have always wondered why you don’t have any cake/muffin kind of recipes on your blog. I can’t wait to see more of your experiments.
Aparna
December 4th, 2008 @ 5:17 am
Reply

Ahaaa..
I was right. You have started baking and the season’s right for it.
The texture of your loaf is nice. Whole wheat flour does make for denser loaves.
What is the hidden baker in you going to unveil next?
sunita
December 4th, 2008 @ 6:11 am
Reply

Somebody’s on a baking trail
Arundathi
December 5th, 2008 @ 12:40 am
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Looks fantastic! loved the muffins too!
Uma
December 5th, 2008 @ 7:05 pm
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lovely bread! banana walnut is such a delicious combo!
sharmi
December 5th, 2008 @ 7:39 pm
Reply

lot of baking going on there that too using all the banana/walnut
pic looks awesome as always.
Swati Jain:Sugarcraft India
December 7th, 2008 @ 8:15 pm
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Hi Sig.. Seeing you in a really long time now.. Have been very erratic in blogging.. The bread looks good and the tips will be very handy too..
Detox Diet Recipes
July 10th, 2009 @ 4:07 am
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oh i love to eat bananas raw. i also love foods and recipes with banana in it. they taste very very good
Cuisinart Bread Maker
September 24th, 2009 @ 10:18 pm
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jyothsna i love banana flavor. could u tell the recipe of banana muffin recipe . it will great helpful for me.