Baking is something I picked up casually this year, and due to an overabundance of bananas at home I started making banana bread off and on. This week, my sister asked me to make banana bread from her overripe bananas — and I had just the recipe.
This is actually “no sugar added” banana bread, because you can find fructose in the bananas and lactose in the milk. But I’ve been using a sugar substitute for a while now that’s stable even when cooking or baking. It’s called “Treasure Sands” elsewhere in Asia but has recently rebranded to “Guiltless Sands” here in the Philippines. It’s basically sugarcane that’s been put through a process to change the molecule so the body no longer processes the sugar. Instead, after tasting good in your mouth, it isn’t absorbed by your body; that makes this sweetener practically zero calories. Guiltless Sands has a low glycemic index which makes it suitable for diabetics and people following a ketogenic diet.
It packs quite a sweet punch because in my experience a cup of sugar can be replaced with about 40 grams (or 1/6 cup) of Guiltless Sands. Usually recipes that use sugar need it to add bulk and structure — for instance, bread needs sugar for the yeast to feed on so it will rise. But for recipes like banana bread which use other leavening agents and get much of its bulk from eggs and flour, Guiltless Sands is perfect.
Why am I using a sugar substitute? Well, my lifestyle is slightly more sedentary these days, so I try to cut my calories wherever I can. I’ve used many different kinds of sweeteners in the past 15 years — stevia, Splenda, etc. I’m more of a salt tooth than a sweet tooth, but I try to make sure I’m not overdosing on sugar calories when I do indulge that sweet tooth.
Watch my vlog below, then scroll down for the recipe.
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 stick butter (salted or unsalted)
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 medium-sized bananas
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 40 grams Guiltless Sands sweetener
PREPARATION:
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line baking pan with parchment paper.
- Melt butter, combine with Guiltless Sands sweetener.
- Beat eggs, add to butter-sugar mixture and whisk ’til smooth.
- Add milk and vanilla extract.
- Mash bananas and add to mixture.
- Combine flour and baking powder together, then add to mixture.
- Pour into baking pan.
- Bake for 50-65 minutes.
- Let cool in pan 10 minutes; remove from pan and cool another 10 minutes before slicing to serve.
My banana bread is great with coffee either as an afternoon snack or as a morning pick-me-up before workout. Every time one of these comes out of the oven I really feel proud and accomplished, and my taste buds concur.
I will probably explore making other baked goods using Guiltless Sands soon. Any suggestions? How about you: what have you learned to make during this quarantine?
You can purchase Guiltless Sands from the Zerocalife Philippines store on Lazada. Find out more about the other Guiltless/Ritual products available by checking out their Facebook page.
