Banana bread: The healthiest and allergy friendly treat!

The Harry Potter Chocolate Cake was not the only cake we had for my daughter’s birthday party. In her class there are three kids with allergies. One of  them should not eat anything with eggs, butter, milk, strawberries or nuts. So, I made a small pan of banana bread `cake’ for the kids with the multiple allergies.  I made this bread a million times before  as a regular banana bread loaf. It’s so delicious!   Because of the butter allergy, this time I substituted butter with canola oil. Did it hurt the taste? Well, I got couple of emails back from mums asking for the recipe. Here’s the healthiest, no cholesterol, minimum sugar recipe for you and your family to enjoy. Credits for the original recipe go to  Kristia Mavroidi’s book `183 Fresh Ideas’ (in Greek).

Recipe

Ingredients

• 5 tablespoons canola oil (or butter or margarine)
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed with a fork
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

How to make: In a mixer, beat the oil or butter with the sugar. Switch to lowest or `stir’ speed. Add the flour mixed with the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the bananas and the vanilla extract. Do not beat or even overmix. When the dough is thoroughly moist, pour the dough in a greased/oiled loaf pan (or as a small round pan like I did for the party) . Bake in pre-heated 375 F or 190 C oven for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Let it cool off before taking it out of the pan.

Notes and tips: You can use whole wheat flour instead of all purpose. I do that all the time when I make the bread for the family and it stays delicious. Also,  you can substitute the all purpose flour with baking powder, soda and salt with just self-rising flour. For a little decoration, I sprinkled confectioner’s sugar on top.