I come across a lot of banana bread recipes on my quest for good, wholesome and healthy bakes and to be quite honest I’m always largely dissatisfied. They either include way too much sugar, a lot of butter, or don’t have enough texture in them in the final bake, making them just like a cake.

I’m not sure about anyone else, but when I make a sweet loaf I want it to be dense, easy to spread upon and, above all else, healthy enough for me to have several slices.

I came across this recipe not long ago on BBC Good Food (my usual source of good, wholesome eats)- http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2554643/healthy-banana-bread –  and was initially really excited by the prospect of their banana bread. Very low sugar and no butter made me keen, but it was the natural yogurt and nuts which made me even more eager.

When I started making it, I noticed I was using my brain as my stomach and thinking how well this would go down, given my IBS woes. If I was adding in heaps of sugar or too much flour, I’d get a bit of a panic going on, knowing I’d make it and then never get to enjoy it. So I tweaked it slightly.

Rather than 4 tbsp agave syrup, I used 1 and replaced with sultanas, 1 more ripe banana, a dash of cinnamon and ginger ground spice, lemon juice, and some vanilla essence to up the sweetness level. I replaced the 100g self-raising flour with 100g coconut flour and added more whole nuts (I chose peanuts as they were the only ones I had) so that the texture was denser and more filling.

Try out my version of this lovely banana bread recipe and perhaps even tweak it to suit your own IBS needs 🙂

Low Sugar Banana Bread Recipe

Ingredients

• 140g wholemeal flour
• 100g coconut flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• ½ tsp salt
• 350g ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 tbsp agave syrup
• 3 large eggs, beaten
• 150ml pot low-fat natural yogurt
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 80g peanuts
• 80g sultanas

Method

1. Heat oven to 160C and grease and line a loaf tin.

2. In a large bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients – so the flours, bicarb, baking powder, cinnamon and ginger, and salt.

3. In a separate bowl, mix together the wet ingredients – so the mashed bananas syrup, beaten eggs, yogurt, lemon juice and vanilla essence.

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4. Now mix together all the wet and dry ingredients together, making sure to fold in all the flour. Add the sultanas and peanuts as you go along with the mixing, adding in until you feel you’ve got enough.

5. Bake in the middle of the oven for 1 hour 15 minutes – keeping it on a lower temperature than normal and baking for longer allows the wet ingredients to bake properly as the recipe is without the helpful aid of butter.

6. Once baked, cool fully on a wire rack. Once cooled, slice into 10 even slices – serve then and there or leave for a few hours. I think it tastes nicer once it’s all properly cooled as the flavours intensify and don’t taste floury.