I love experimenting with recipes, and banana bread is one of my favourites to dabble with.

I found this recipe on Cook Republic and then tweaked it myself to make it sugar-free. For those who don’t know, Cook Republic is written by Sneh, a self-described photographer, stylist, designer and mum. She’s also been a food columnist for Elle Australia and has her own book, Tasty Express.

I’m not vegan or some kind of raw-foodie, but I do extract the ingredients and recipes I believe are both tasty and reasonably healthy which are sometimes inspired by vegan websites or other various health nuts. I am by no means a “nazi” when it comes to my diet, but limiting sugar and processed food is what I aim for.

Like many people, I use coconut oil, organic butter (LOVE butter), chia seeds, rice malt syrup, Himalayan salt, almond and hazelnut meal in various recipes.

I enjoy experimenting with the ingredients and finding out what I can replace in recipes to improve them. It’s really more of a hobby than a diet.

Anyway, I was really please with how the bread turned out. It tastes great toasted with plain butter, or I put some of my home-made almond butter. It’s super easy, just grind almonds in a food processor then add butter (you can play around with the ratios based on preference) and it makes a nice alternative to the sandy variety you buy in the health shop.

So I tweaked Sneh’s Banana Bread with Coconut Milk recipe like so:

Preparation Time – 10 Minutes
Cooking Time – 60 Minutes
Makes – To Serve 12

Ingredients

185ml full cream coconut milk
3/4 cup brown sugar – I replaced this with 1/2 cup of Rice Malt Syrup
2 eggs
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
2 cups self raising flour – I used wholemeal flour and added baking powder to it to make it rise
2 tablespoons honey – I ignored the honey and added 1/4 cup of chia seeds soaked in water 
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
a pinch of salt
raw sugar for sprinkling – I skipped this step

Method

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and line with baking paper, a 20cm x 10cm loaf pan.

Whisk coconut milk, sugar rice malt syrup, eggs, cinnamon, salt and honey chia seeds in a large bowl with an electric mixer until creamy and combined. Stir through the banana, oat and flour until thoroughly mixed.

Spoon batter in prepared pan. Sprinkle the top with raw sugar. Bake in pre-heated oven for 1 hour until well risen, golden on top and cooked through.

Serve warm or cold. Best toasted with butter. Freezes well.

 

 

– See more at: http://www.cookrepublic.com/recipe-archive/banana-and-coconut-milk-bread/#sthash.8Z6p192v.dpuf

It turned out delicious! The chia seeds make it lovely and “moist” (I hate that word, acceptable for baked goods only!) and I find coconut milk really makes a smooth texture too.

Even my older and unhealthier brother liked it, so it must be good! Junk food in disguise!

Enjoy!

Mel xo