Breads and Jam

Don't know what has happen but been posting like crazy. Been feeling bit better, spirit-wise. Huh, guess my new eating adventure if helping a bit. And I guess it helps that I'm not totally crazy with work. But who knows when that will pick up again. But I'm rambling, let's get back to breads and jam.

Been testing out some quick breads these past few weeks for my parent's visit in May. Since I have a bunch a bananas in my freezer, I decided to make some banana bread, I used my tried and true recipe. But this time I decided to fiddle with the recipe. I wanted to make it a little healthier for my new eating adventure. So I swapped out the sour cream for non-fat greek yogurt, added 3 tbsp of grounded golden flax seeds and a handful of golden raisins [I think about a 1/3 of a cup].


I've never baked with flax seed before so I wasn't exactly sure how it would have turn out. I thought it may be a little too dense or too dry. To my surprise, it came out great, a different texture than my usually banana bread. My original banana bread is more cake-like and pretty moist. The ground flax seeds and non-fat yogurt made it more bread-like. This bread would probably toast up great with a little bit of butter on top. Took a long time to bake through needed to tent the top so it wouldn't burn.




I guess I've been on a roll with these quick breads and I've had this coconut bread from smitten kitchen in the back of my mind for a while. It looked so delicious.  So when I was trying to find recipe for a pineapple cake and thought why not add it the coconut bread recipe. Yes, of course if read the post, she thought of that too but kept to the recipe. I had some pineapple that needed to be used and as you see that's how my bread became coconut pineapple bread.

It was a hit at the office. I paired it with a new jam recipe I got from friend, strawberry chia jam made with coconut palm sugar. I added blueberries because I had some. The bread is a little more dense than the banana bread [not in dry way], has great flavor and the pineapple bits were a great addition.

A little note about the jam. Got the link from a friend [actually a birthday link], I've been adding chia seeds to my yogurt [another one of eating adventure change]. I've also been reading about it in the book that's been taking me forever to finish about ultra-marathon runners. So I decide to try the recipe out, I had most of the ingredients. Well, it came out great, it took a shorter time to cook because of the chia seeds. It made it thicken up quicker. The coconut palm sugar isn't as sweet as white sugar and has slight caramel taste to it. 

What to try next? Any suggestions? Here's my healthier Banana Bread Recipe.

Princess Hot Flash Healthier Banana Bread

Bake 350º
Time: 1 hour 15 minutes or tester comes out clean
Pan: 9x5x3 Loaf pan

3/4 c butter, soften
1 1/2c sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 c non-fat greek yogurt, plain
2 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp grounded golden flax seeds
1 cup ripe bananas, mashed [I throw my ripe bananas in my freezer, I used 2 medium size ones]
1/3 cup golden raisins.

Grease pan with oil and flour, set on the side. Shift together in a separate bowl dry ingredients and set on the side. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at time, mix in well then add vanilla. Mix in dry ingredients alternating with yogurt in 3 addition. Don't overmix. Fold in bananas and raisins. 

You need to watch your bread as it got really dark at the end. I tent it with foil for the last 1/2 hour so it wouldn't burn. I tested it with a bamboo skewer to see if it was done.