Please forgive me but I have posted this recipe before.  It is Aunt Grace’s Banana Bread and if you haven’t had a chance to try it, I suggest that you do.  It is really delicious.  The only difference is that this time I made it with Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  I used a medium oil not the usual delicate one.

Now, I know it sounds like it wouldn’t taste good.  Olive oil is somewhat strong and one can taste it in salads.  In cooking, it looses it’s distinguishing flavor and just enhances whatever it is that you are making.  All fats, whether they are an oil or butter have pretty much the same amount of calories, somewhere between 36 to 44 per teaspoon.   Butter has 36, olive oil 40.  Fats make food taste better and they make a person feel fuller.  I’m finding that fats are a major subject in all new diet and nutrition books.  I’ve been reading that there are good fats and bad fats.  I believe this.  I have believed this for a long time.  I only have two types of fats in my home, olive oil and butter.  That’s all I ever use, all that I ever need.  You can substitute olive oil for butter in most of your cooking and baking.  In fact, if you substitute the butter with olive oil, you will probably be lowering the caloric value of your dish because you use less.  Although using both in a sauté, for example, can be very delicious.  To substitute olive oil for butter just use 2/3 of the amount needed in the recipe and if baking, I tend to leave it in a few minutes longer.  It might just be my oven but I feel it usually takes a little longer to bake.  The product is always very rich and moist.  I have to say that this banana bread is more moist than the original one made with butter.  Try both and let me know which one you like best.  I have my favorite but would really like to hear what you think.  Just leave something in the comments below.

Ingredients

1 cup Sugar

6 Tbls. Olive Oil

2 Eggs

3 Bananas, very ripe

1 1/4 cup Flour

1 tsp. Baking Soda

1/2 tsp. Salt

 

Combine the Sugar and Olive Oil.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients

In another bowl, whip the Eggs and Bananas. I try to get the Bananas to dissolve as much as possible and to make the mixture as light as I can.

Add the Egg/Banana mixture to the Sugar bowl.  Then add the dry ingredients until combined.Pour into a 4 x 8 greased loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Maybe a little longer.

The whole house smells wonderful when this is in the oven.  I hope you will try it and let me know what you think.

Sliced into 16 servings.  Each serving contains 159 Calories, 6 grams Fat, 25.1 grams Carbs, 2 grams Protein.