Starting Sugar Free February with Healthy Banana Bread as Seen on BBC Good Food

I am not signing up for this challenge as I have no experience with raising money and I have no idea what to do and where to start, but I just want to give up added sugar this February for my own health. However, if I see other people doing it, I will definitely support them. 

My relationship with sugar (in fact, cakes) is a love-hate one and it goes back a few years now when I started to develop a sweet tooth (no idea how as I was into savoury). On one hand, I am craving cakes and I would eat them every day for breakfast but on the other hand, I know that too much sugar is not good for you. Then I discovered no-bake ones with no sugar but dried fruits and maple syrup, yet I would still slip back into the old habits of eating old-fashioned full-of-sugar indulgent cakes.

Knowing that I wanted to give it a go at giving up added sugar for a month, when I saw this recipe on BBC Good Food, I knew I wanted to try it. I was nearly put off by the mixed reviews mainly saying that this bread isn't sweet at all or it is soggy, but then I thought that while I can avoid the latter by baking it at lower temperature and cover the top, the first is just what I was after. 

Ingredients:

140g wholemeal flour

100g self-raising flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp baking powder

300g mashed banana from overripe black bananas

4 tbsp agave syrup

3 large eggs beaten with a fork

150ml pot low-fat natural yoghurt

25g chopped pecan or walnuts (optional)

Method:

Mix the dried ingredients first.

Then mix the wet ones and incorporate them into the dried ingredients. 

Pour it into a baking tin for 1.15min at 140/160 degrees. 

I followed the recipe as stated with a few small tweaks: I didn't use any nuts, I added a bit more banana and less syrup (maple, not agave - I am not sure how healthy those syrups are so maybe next time I won't use any at all), and I added a handful of currants. The result is what I expected: a banana loaf, not too sweet, not too soggy but wet enough to enjoy the texture and a great complement to my morning coffee. It goes well with jam, too and yesterday when I made it, I tried it with damson jam. Today, however, I just ate it plain. 

I don't have any 'making-of' photos as I didn't expect to turn it into a blog post, but as I photographed the results, I thought I would share them here so here are some photos with the result. Yummy! 

I used a round tin, rather than a rectangular. Don't ask me why. maybe to get the feeling that it is a cake and not bread loaf? 

I like the texture of the bread, it is a bit wet, but not too soggy. Maybe next time I will leave out the syrup and add more banana. 

I love using the dishes I got from my mum to photograph my cakes and bakes. And coffee, of course.

If you are interested in this healthy banana bread, you can find the recipe here.