RECIPE AT THE TOP #3: buckwheat banana bread
just a quick post for a quick recipe — this shit is bananas 🍌
Yes! Here is the recipe: AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE. Blurb comes after — what a concept 🤯
BUCKWHEAT BANANA BREAD
Ingredients
5 very ripe (or thawed from frozen**) bananas
¼ cup butter, melted and cooled
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
¾ cup buckwheat flour
¾ cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp turmeric
4-5 cranks fresh black pepper
⅛ tsp salt
½ cup hemp hearts
Directions
preheat your oven to 350F and lightly grease a 8 ½” x 4 ½” loaf pan*
avocado oil spray is my go-to, but you can also use butter and spread a thin layer evenly over the inside of the loaf pan
in a large mixing bowl, mash your bananas and set aside
melt butter in microwave-safe measuring cup, heating 20-30 seconds at a time until completely liquid, set aside to cool
add sugar, egg, and vanilla extract to the mashed bananas, whisk to combine
in medium bowl, mix dry ingredients (flours, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, turmeric, black pepper, salt), stir to combine
add cooled butter to wet ingredient banana mixture, stir to combine
with a rubber spatula, slowly incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, stirring until there are no large, dry clumps of flour
add the hemp hearts into the batter and stir to combine evenly
pour your banana bread batter into your prepared loaf pan, making sure that there is at least ½” of empty space under the rim of the pan (no one wants an overflowing banana bread oven catastrophe)
bake for ~60 minutes, or until your cake tester of choice comes out clean (I use a kebab skewer)
let cool completely before gently removing from the loaf pan
Notes:
tsp = teaspoon
*smaller or larger loaf pans will also work
9” x 5” = shorter cooking time (~55 minutes?)
8” x 4” = longer cooking time (~65 minutes?)
**if using frozen bananas, make sure that they come to room temperature before adding your wet ingredients, especially the melted butter; also, as you can see below, I only used 8 frozen bananas instead of 10 for doubling this recipe because I was thinking that they would be more liquid-y than fresh bananas — which was true but then I also forgot the hemp hearts. hey, it turned out basically fine, maybe a little dry for my taste, so I’d include an extra banana (or an extra tablespoon of butter?) the next time I make banana bread with frozen bananas 🍌🥶
If you’re like me and have an unstoppable urge to make large batches of one thing and then freeze most / all of it, have I got a great idea for you regarding this banana bread recipe — do what I did in the photo gallery above: double this recipe and get yourself this multi-mini loaf pan. Grease all mini loaf spaces and fill each space to be ¾ full of batter. Bake at 350F for approximately 30 minutes, or until a cake tester/toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely, wrap individual loaves tightly in cling wrap, store in a gallon freezer bag. Store them in the freezer and let this bag become what my MIL refers to as “buried treasure” in your freezer. Reheat in the oven at 350F for ~5 minutes, then microwave in 30-second intervals until warmed through the middle. Apply copious amounts of salted butter.
Banana bread is one of those ubiquitous things that you never thought that you needed another recipe for. Until this one. Yes, I am telling you that maybe you should go out and buy some ingredients that aren’t a part of your regular pantry arsenal. And yes, I am telling you that this will become a staple banana bread in your house.
Why did I go out of my way to include such non traditional things in my banana bread like buckwheat flour, turmeric, black pepper, and hemp hearts? Because they all do good things for you:
Buckwheat flour: fiber 💩, a little extra protein, rich in minerals and antioxidants
Turmeric: anti-inflammatory, compounds more easily absorbed with fat (hello butter 🧈), potent antioxidant
Black pepper: helps further activate the above compounds in turmeric 💥
Hemp hearts: healthful omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, a little extra protein, good for your skin, more fiber 💩
Yes, there is butter and there is sugar — that’s what makes traditional baking work, and I’m sure that these can be substituted with things like coconut oil and applesauce and whatever else was the trend in the late 2000’s/early 2010’s. I just don’t know enough about it and don’t have a reason to right now. But honestly, I did try to use less white sugar and more bananas for a more natural sugar source. And it worked! My educated guess is that since the buckwheat is a little thicker than all purpose flour and can soak up the additional moisture from the bananas. But if you know better, you can tell me I’m wrong. I’m always ready to learn.
I say we can all live a little: have the butter and the sugar and the heavily processed flour — you’re making it at home, which is always 100x better than whatever you buy packaged at the grocery store. But also, let’s try to incorporate some of those sneaky add-ins for stuff outside of the banana bread. Like sprinkle some hemp hearts on your avocado toast. Or add a little turmeric to your next smoothie, it’s delicious. Make some buckwheat pancakes or waffles or whatever sounds good to you that has buckwheat flour in it. I tried not to go overboard with the extraneous ingredients in this recipe for a simple banana bread, but my pantry was/is constantly overflowing with ingredients begging to be used. Buying ingredients for one recipe requires you to find recipes to use them in, and this is how we learn to become better, smarter cooks.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you for being here.
❤️ Sarah