Banana Bread The Nourishing Traditions Way

We go through a lot of bananas in our house, but last week for some reason we did not go through as many as I bought.  So as the fruit gnats started swarming I had to do something with the bananas.  I figured I would just do the old fall back banana bread recipe, but then thought “I think I will try something a little different, but what?”  I turned to the recipe index of one of my top cookbooks, Nourishing Traditions and on page 483 there was a banana bread recipe and I had all the ingredients!  I did make 2 changes from the recipe in the cookbook, but they are not big ones – I added one more banana because I had 3 that were very ripe and instead of crispy pecans I did some dark chocolate chips!

Nourishing Traditions Banana Bread

Ingredients

3 cups  spelt, kamut or wheat flour (freshly ground if you have a mill – I wish I did)
2 cups buttermilk, kefir, or yogurt
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp sea salt
1/4 – 1/2 cup maple syrup
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup melted butter
3 ripe bananas, mashed
Handful dark chocolate chips

1. Mix the flour and buttermilk, kefir or yogurt in a glass bowl, cover with a cloth and let sit 12 – 24 hours – the longer you soak the more it will rise.  If you are milk intolerant you can use 2 cups filtered water plus 2 tablespoons whey, lemon juice or vinegar instead of the buttermilk, kefir or yogurt.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

3. Grease a loaf pan with butter and dust with flour.

4. Add the eggs and butter and mix well.  You will have to use your arm muscles for this one.  The soaked flour is more like a dough at this point.  You could also put into into a Kitchen Aide mixer and use a dough paddle.

5. Add the salt, syrup, baking soda, bananas and chocolate chips – mix very well.

6. Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for 1 – 1 1/2 hours.  Check after 1 hour – mine was done.  You want a toothpick to come out clean.

7. Take out of the oven and cool slightly on a rack in pan – then take out of pan and allow to cool completely.

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