Recipe: Healthy Pear and Banana Bread

(Pear and Banana Bread Recipe) For various reasons, I have a love/hate relationship with food. But even so, I absolutely love to cook. I fell in love with the creative accomplishment at a young age, and buoyed by the likes of Jamie Oliver and Nigella, I happily spent most of my time in culinary heaven doing the hospitality thing.

These days, I don’t always get the time to be adventurous in the kitchen. Between preparing healthy nutritious meals for baby, picky little ones, and then MB and DB, my chef hat is ready to retire by 7pm. Outside of the nanny life, my kitchen and I are lonely houseguests, living with each other but not really knowing each other.

So the midday nap times in the nanny life have become my treasured moments of sanctuary. Whilst the little Mr has his day sleep, I seek refuge in the kitchen and get to work creating meal plans in the search for the elusive meal to suit all ages and food preferences of the family. But mostly, I bake. Baking calms the mind and feeds the soul.

A champion of healthy eating and of the importance for children to have a healthy nutritious and well balance diet, I tend to rework old classics into healthier, lunch box friendly treats. This banana, pear and sultana loaf is a modern take on the traditional butter and sugar loaded banana cake and is a big success with the kiddos.

You’ll Need:

1 large banana, smashed
2 medium-sized pears, smashed
125g butter*
1 cup coconut sugar
1/2 cup rice malt syrup
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup sultanas
150g wholemeal plain flour
100g coconut flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp all-spice
1 tsp bicard soda
1 tsp salt
5 drops vanilla
1/2 cup milk (I used almond milk)
2 tsp lemon juice

To Make:

1. Combine the milk and lemon juice together and set aside.

2. Cream the butter and sugar together. Add vanilla and eggs and mix lightly.

3. In a separate bowl, sift flours and mix dry ingredients. Add the fruit and sultanas.

4. Gradually mix the butter mixture into the dry ingredients until well combined, adding the milk and lemon juice mixture.

5. Pour into a medium-sized greased and lined loaf tin and bake for 55 minutes at 180 degrees C.

6. Switch the oven off and leave to sit for another 5 minutes. Then remove from tin and allow to cool on a wire rack.

7. To finish, dust lightly with cinnamon or coconut sugar.

*To reduce the amount of butter used, you can half the quantity and then also add 1/2 the amount of pureed apple sauce, prune puree, smashed avocado or a portion of chia seeds soaked in greek yoghurt. To use this method, cream the smaller portion of butter as per usual and then add in the substitutes with the the wet ingredients.

**For a fancy finish, top with chia seeds, slithered almonds or banana chips before placing the loaf into the oven.

Slice and portion off the Banana and Pear loaf ready for school lunch boxes, afternoon tea snacks, or slather a slice in nut butter for a quick morning breakfast on the go.

A healthy twist on an old classic, this Pear and Banana bread is so good, it’s almost too good. Better still, I promise you, the kiddos will love it as much as you do!

>>> Do you love to cook? Enjoy reinventing recipes to suit healthier tastes for kids?