Though I try to make healthy eating choices most of the time I wouldn’t consider myself a part of the fat-free/low-fat fad. We eat a lot of salmon, avocado, nuts, etc. around here and we try to choose our fat sources well. When it comes to sweets, I have baked plenty of rubbery and otherwise no good low-fat treats over the years and have finally come to the conclusion that I’d rather indulge in the real thing every once in a while than sacrifice on flavor and texture. So it’s taken me a while to try substituting yogurt for butter in my favorite recipes, a substitution that I’ve heard a lot about.
With that said, I finally tried it with my family’s classic banana bread recipe and my family loved it. I simply substituted low-fat Greek yogurt for the shortening/butter. {I also tried it with fat-free yogurt but the texture was not as good.} The result was a moist, flavorful banana bread that turns out to be a pretty healthy breakfast or snack, even when slathered in peanut butter. I generally err on extra bananas and make sure not to over-cook the bread in order to keep the bread moist.
- ½ cup low-fat Greek yogurt {or regular yogurt}
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup mashed banana {approximately 3 ripe bananas}
- 2 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ⅓ cup milk + 1 tsp vinegar {or ⅓ cup + 1 tsp buttermilk}
- Cream the yogurt and the sugar.
- Add the eggs and the mashed bananas.
- Alternate between adding the remaining dry and wet ingredients.
- Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan.
- Bake the bread at 350 degrees for 40-60 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean, making sure not to over-cook the bread.
- Let the loaf cool in the pan for ten minutes.
- Gently slide a knife around the edges of the loaf to loosen it from the pan.
- Invert the pan onto a plate and gently shake and tap the pan until the bread falls out.
- Let the banana bread cool completely on a wire rack.
{TIP: Mashed bananas freeze well. If I have bananas that are getting too ripe but I don’t have time to make bread, I mash the bananas and freeze them in 1 cup portions so that it’s all measured and ready to go for when I do have time to bake.}
