Healthy Banana-Walnut Bread & Easy Potato Herb Puff Pastry

I call this recipe healthy for 2 reasons. One, instead of using 3 cups all purpose flour/maida, I have used 1 cup of maida and 2 cups of wheat flour (normal atta). Second substitution made was for butter; I have used canola oil instead. The bread came out moist and yummy! I always make sure to bake cakes in the afternoons as the whole house smells of cake while it is getting baked. It is heavenly to sit and have a cuppa tea while you enjoy the aroma! Banana Bread is more of a cake than a bread. It may be sliced like a bread, but tastes like a fruit cake.

This recipe is special to me not just because its healthier than many other banana bread recipes, but also because I made it for my husband's PhD/Doctoral dissertation defense. It went great! We all are so proud of him.

Ingredients:-

2 cups of wheat flour/atta
1 cup of all purpose flour/ maida
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3 ripe bananas
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar (you can substitute with brown sugar, but you may need to add a little more to get the same amt of sweetness)
1 1/2 cups canola oil
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup of broken walnuts



I used 9" x 13" non-stick baking tray. The batter fits perfectly.

Method:-

Blend/mash the ripe bananas with vanilla essence. (I prefer to blend)
Mix the flours,eggs and sugar in a vessel.
Add the banana-vanilla essence mixture. Mix well for about 5 minutes.
Add oil and a half of the broken walnuts. Mix it well it the paste becomes smooth for about 10 minutes.
Grease your baking tray and preheat the oven at 375 F.
Pour the batter into the tray and top it with the left over walnuts.
Bake for 45 mins to 1 hr. My banana bread took an hour :)
Check with a fork or tooth pick to see it is done (the toothpick should come out clean).
Cool and slice them.

I also made tiny potato herb puff pastries. I made them with ready made puff pastry sheets. The reason I am still including this recipe is because the potato herb stuffing came out really great! Though no hard work went into making these puff pastries, the stuffing was worth sharing with you guys!

Ingredients for herb stuffing:-

3 large potatoes cook and mashed
1 medium sized onion chopped
2 tbl spns of grated beetroots
1/2 tsp of crushed pepper
1/8 tsp of thyme
1/8 tsp of rosemary
1/8 tsp of sage
1/8 tsp of chives
5-6 mint leaves chopped finely
1 tbl spn of ginger-garlic paste
2 tbl spns of oil.
salt to taste

Method:-

Heat oil in pan.
Add the onions and ginger-garlic paste. Fry well till onions get transparent.
Add the mashed potatoes and beets. Fry well with the herbs, salt and pepper.
Add mint leaves and fry for a minutes or so.
Let it cool before you stuff them in a puff pastry. I cut the puff pastry into a square (side length-3 inches) and stuffed the potato mixture. The shape and size is your call. I made small folded squares
Bake at 350 F for 20 mins.
Serve with ketchup.