Blueberry Walnut Banana Bread

by Emily Malone

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 60-75 minutes

Ingredients (1 loaf)

• 1.5 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 cup organic cane sugar
• 2 tablespoons ground flax (+1/4 cup water)
• 4 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 1 cup frozen blueberries

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a loaf pan.  In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients – flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. If you prefer a different type of flour, feel free to sub that in. I like the chewiness (and added nutrition!) from using whole wheat.

In a small bowl, combine the ground flax with water to make a "flax egg" – let the mixture sit for a few minutes until thickened.

In another small bowl (sorry, this is a 3 bowl operation), mash the bananas and combine with the milk and vanilla. I like to leave the bananas a little lumpy so that I get big gooey bites of it in the final product. If you like smoother bread, whisk until the banana is pretty much pureed.

Combine the wet ingredients into the dry, and mix until just combined.  Fold the walnuts and blueberries in – I like to use a LOT of both. In my opinion, you really can’t have too many.

Bake at 350 degrees for 60-75 minutes. The top will be golden brown, but test with a knife to make sure the middle has cooked through. It’s a pretty dense loaf!

Transfer to a cooling rack. Slice and eat a piece immediately.

I made this for my mom’s group this morning, and judging from amount that is left, I’d say it was a hit.  The crust is crunchy and sweet, while the middle is gooey and dense – the best of both worlds. 

It’s easy, it’s healthy, and as an added bonus – it makes your house smell amaaaaaaazing.  Enjoy!

Ingredients (8 scones)

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/3 cup sucanat or organic cane sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 6 tablespoons Earth Balance
• 2 tablespoons chia seeds (+6 tablespoons water)
• 3/4 cup almond/soy milk
• 1/3 cup crystallized ginger, minced
• 1/3 cup dried currants
• extra sugar for topping

Instructions

Start by preheating your oven to 375 degrees. To make these scones, you use the traditional biscuit method for dough preparation. Don’t worry, I’m going to walk you through it.  Making these brought back so many culinary school flashbacks – we made biscuits almost every day!

Okay, back to it.  Add your flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and spices to a mixing bowl and stir to combine.

In a small separate bowl, add the 2 tablespoons chia seeds to 6 tablespoons water. Allow the mixture to sit for about 5 minutes until it becomes a "chia egg." I used to use flax eggs in a lot of my vegan baking, but recently I’ve liked the way chia eggs have worked better.  The texture really does resemble an egg white.

While the chia seeds hydrate, prepare the butter. The key to a successful biscuit dough (I know these are scones, stay with me) is keeping your butter (or Earth Balance) as cold as possible. The colder the better, and frozen is actually best if you have time to freeze a stick ahead of time.

Working quickly, slice your butter stick into tiny pea-sized pieces.

Add the butter pieces to the bowl with your dry ingredients, and toss to coat them and distribute throughout the flour.

Using your fingers, rub the butter into the flour for about 30 seconds. You want about half the butter to be worked into the flour, and half to remain little flour covered butter peas.

Put your bowl of flour and butter into the freezer in order to keep it cold while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Mince a few hunks of crystallized ginger into tiny pieces, in order to yield about 1/3 cup. These crystallized ginger pieces give the scones an exciting and unexpected spiciness.

Whisk 3/4 cup almond or soy milk into the now thickened chia egg.

Once combined, add the milk/chia mixture to your bowl of flour and butter. Use your hands to mix the wet and dry ingredients until they become a dough.

As the dough comes together, add the crystallized ginger and currants.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and form into a circle. Using a chef’s knife or pizza cutter, slice the dough into 8 even triangles.

Carefully transfer the pieces onto a greased cookie sheet.

Space the wedges about 1 inch apart, and sprinkle each wedge with an additional bit of granulated sugar.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until just starting to turn golden brown on top.

Serve with hot coffee and enjoy with a friend.

When we run out of these, there is always the bakery down the street to get our fix, but it’s nice knowing we can make our own version right here in the comfort of our kitchen.  And with a baby in my arms most of the time, it’s nice to have a breakfast option that I can eat with one hand!

Enjoy!