Better Banana Bread

A friend of mine just expressed her frustration that ice-cream and Honey Buns are on the menu everyday at her kindergartner's school. Yuck. What five-year-old is going to choose vegetables when he has the option of filling up on ice-cream? Because it can be hard to help our children make healthy food choices outside the home, it's important to provide them with healthy options at home. I like this banana bread recipe because it's lower in sugar than most. It also replaces some of the fat with yogurt. I make it even healthier by substituting whole-wheat flour for one fourth of the white flour. The best part is it still tastes delicious.

This recipe is straight from my America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook which I can't say enough good things about. These people are total food nerds. This is a crowd who will dork out on making forty-seven batches of banana bread just to test out whether changing the nutmeg/cinnamon ratio by 1/4 teaspoon makes any difference in taste. They spend all their time in the kitchen so that we don't have to, and I appreciate them for it. I also have their Healthy Family Cookbook, which is sort of my go-to cookbook. Their recipes never let me down.

Banana Bread

2 cups all-purpose flour (or 1-1/2 cups + 1/2 cup whole wheat flour)
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 very ripe bananas, mashed well (they must be very ripe or your bread will be gummy)
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/4 cup walnuts, toasted

1. Preheat oven to 350 and generously coat a 9 x 5 pan with vegetable oil spray.
2. Whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl. Whisk the bananas, melted butter, eggs, yogurt, and vanilla together in a separate bowl. Gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry with a rubber spatula until just combined. Fold in the nuts. Do not overmix; the batter will look thick and chunky.
3. Scrape the batter into the pan an smooth the top. Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with just a few crumbs attached, about 55 minutes.
4. Cool in the pan 10 minutes and then move to a wire rack for 1 hour.