Banana Bread without Sugar????

My kids love a big fat slice of warm bread for breakfast, especially in the fall.

I happened to have a bottle of boiled cider in my pantry begging for me to find some delicious uses for it and so I decided to experiment. If you don't have boiled cider, you can make your own (by literally boiling down apple cider to thicken it and condense the flavor) or you could use regular apple cider in place of it in this recipe.

So what to mix with that rich apple flavor? A quick look around the kitchen lead me to the banana bowl where a few rogue bananas had been left to get soft and brown and ignored by my kids. Some people (like my kids) think this means its time to chuck them, but I know the softer they are, the sweeter they are! Usually I peel them and slice them and stick them in the freezer to be added to my smoothies and protein bowls throughout the week but today they inspired me to attempt this bread without any sugar. My hope was that the thick, condensed, natural sweetness in the apple cider and the developed sweetness of these mashed bananas was just the perfect combination!

The kids were a little skeptical (and by a little I actually mean a lot) when I left the sugar on the shelf and grabbe dthe flax seed instead, but they were all pleasantly surprise with the first bite of yumminess.

Here's how to try it at home:

Ingredients:

4 ripe bananas, mashed

1/3 cup coconut oil, melted

1/4 cup boiled cider (I use King Arthur's)

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 3/4 cups white wheat flour (or whole wheat)

1/4 cup groud flax seed

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup chopped walnuts* optional

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 F

Grease a large bread pan

In a large bowl, mix the mashed bananas, oil, eggs and cider until smooth

In a small bowl, sift together all of the dry ingredients except the nuts

Incorporate the dry ingredients into the banana mixture and stir until just combined

Pour into your bread pan

Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean

***you can certainly use smaller loaf pans or muffin cups instead of a large bread pan,

but cooking times will vary ~25-35 minutes for muffins and 30140 minutes for smaller

loaf pans but check them often to prevent over cooking

The result: delicious, not too sweet, moist banana bread with a warm rich flavor that makes it perfect for a cooler fall morning. My kiddos love it with a thin smear of peanut butter on it! This week I have even been using it as the base for their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at lunchtime as a treat.

I hope if you try it, you enjoy it as much as we did! I consider this a big win for my healthy baking experiments. If you make it share your pictures and let us know how you like it.