Greek yoghurt strawberry banana bread

It's a Wednesday, a day off from school due to the teacher's strike, and the weather is going wild. Blustering winds, powerful enough to topple bins over. Yesterday's weather was the perfect spring weather. Breeze, with sunshine. Today, well, let's just say that Melbourne can unexpectedly change at any time.

Today, I wanted to bake something warm and nutritional, yet tasteful. I didn't want to bake anything with too much sugar. I baked a batch of double chocolate peanut butter cookies over the weekend..They tasted so fudgey and yummy, and I just could not resist. And it had lots and lots of chocolate in it.

But anyway, the healthy solution: banana, dark chocolate, strawberry and walnut bread. One might say (for example, my mother) 'strawberries don't go with banana'. But have they ever tried that combination in the form of banana bread? No.

* Update: I changed the picture because I recently just made a new batch and the pictures look MUCH better. Though the top is a little strange, I guess I put a little bit too much baking powder.

  I found this recipe online, at 'No sugar sweet life'. I have slightly adapted it, reducing sugar and adding walnuts and chocolate. This is somewhat similar with the banana bread you'd see in a bakery, or even in my school's cafeteria, which is delicious but I know it has actually a mound of sugar in it. This recipe uses wholemeal/whole-wheat flour, so it keeps you more filled. It's very moist and not too sweet at all, so even the non-sweet tooth people will enjoy it!

I have to admit, the pictures doesn't do the justice of making it look scrumptiously delicious, but looks can be deceiving.  I have eaten 2 slices,tastes like a slice of heaven. And it's healthy. Could this get any better?


Greek yoghurt strawberry banana bread, adapted from No sugar, sweet life

Ingredients

*wholemeal is the same as whole wheat flour

1 1⁄2 cup Wholemeal Flour + 3 tablespoons Wholemeal Pastry Flour

1 1⁄2 teaspoon  Baking Powder

1⁄2 teaspoon salt (optional, but I never add salt to my baked goods)

1⁄2 cup Brown Sugar (I reduced it to 1/3 but you can alter to your liking)

3  Large ripe bananas

2  Eggs

170 grams Greek yoghurt (any other yoghurt is fine; plain, vanilla, flavoured) 

1 cup Diced Strawberries
1/2 cup of chocolate chunks or chips (dark or milk)
1/2 cup of walnuts

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180/190 degrees celsius/ 375 Fahrenheit .  Start by combining flour, baking powder, and  salt in a large mixing bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, mash bananas with a fork until they are gooey and liquid-like.
3. Add eggs and sugar… mix thoroughly.
4. Add yoghurt and whisk until everything is well combined and there are no lumps.
5. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, and mix until just combined.  Add in strawberries, walnuts and chocolate chips.
6. Pour batter into a greased loaf pan or line the loaf pan with baking paper and distribute evenly.
7. Put into the oven and bake for 45 minutes to one hour, or until the top is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.
8. Transfer to a cooling rack and let the bread cool for at least ten minutes before slicing.

*if you don't have fresh strawberries, you can use frozen ones, but in my opinion, they taste nothing like the fresh ones. But, you can substitute the strawberries for any other kind of berry like blueberry (and I always eat the frozen packaged ones). If you don't like berries, just add the chocolate and walnuts. That's a classic banana bread.