When I was in high school, I pulled the now out of print Canadian Living’s Best Muffins and More out of the school library and was hooked on their banana bread recipe. One tablespoon of butter? It didn’t seem possible! And the millet – it’s like all the satisfying crunch of sugar sprinkles but healthy! I keep millet on hand for this, and it can also be made into porridge, a couscous type side dish, and in stews. Toast it before cooking and it brings out its nutty flavor. Winter and I have had it as a porridge. I find it in the bulk food section of my local grocery store. Yes, it is the stuff found in birdseed, but so are sunflower seeds and I think those are great, too! It’s an overlooked grain and a good source of copper, manganese, phosphorus, and magnesium.

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I actually lost the recipe for a few years and combed the internet for something similar. I knew it involved millet and makeshift buttermilk, but it was nowhere to be found, even after trying to contact Canadian Living. I couldn’t even find anything similar that used such little butter. I ended up having to get an old friend request the book from a Canadian library in a nearby city, so now we can both enjoy the recipe.

The recipe calls for graham flour – I’ve never seen that at the places I shop so I just use all purpose flour. Sometimes I add a handful of walnuts, but it’s really not necessary with the millet, and I always add two handfuls of chocolate chips. Sometimes I’ll add a brown sugar/cinnamon topping. This is my go-to banana bread recipe, I love it!

INGREDIENTS

  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 1/2 tsp white vinegar
  • 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp butter, softened
  • 1 cup mashed bananas
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup graham flour
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/3 cup millet
  • chocolate chips (optional)

DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 350 F
  2. Combine milk and vinegar to make buttermilk. Set aside.
  3. In a large bowl, beat sugar with butter. Beat in bananas and eggs.
  4. Combine dry ingredients except millet and stir into banana mixture, alternating with milk mixture, making three additions of dry and two of milk.
  5. Stir in millet and chocolate chips (optional).
  6. Pour into greased 9×5″ loaf pan. Bake in 350 F oven for 45-50 minutes or until wooden skewer inserted in center comes out clean.