Banana Bread

Now, I'm not a huge banana fan. As in, if I never ate a banana again, I probably wouldn't miss it. But, I occasionally slice one over my cereal or eat one when there's nothing else in the fruit bowl and will eat them happily in baked goods. I've made Steph's banana oatmeal cookies so many times that I had to come up with a new use for the brown ones on the counter.

I won't tell you how many banana bread recipes I read before I settled on this one but it was a lot. I only had 2 bananas, wanted to make one loaf pan, and didn't want to use a whole stick of butter. This recipe turned out just as I had hoped. I thought the method was a little strange for quick bread (mixer, beating the eggs and sugar together, etc.) but it was easy and even my little sous chef liked the "cake." Next time I'd add the nuts for sure but I was serving little kids and didn't want to risk it.

In case you can't tell, this is her holding up the clean toothpick and declaring the cake "ready."


Banana Bread (1 loaf pan)
from Allrecipes

2 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
2 very ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup applesauce
1/3 cup nonfat milk
1 T vegetable oil
1 T vanilla
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour (or can do all white flour - same proportions)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 c. chopped walnuts or pecans

Preheat the oven to 325 and spray a bread pan with cooking spray. In a large bowl (I used my stand mixer), beat eggs and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in the bananas, applesauce, milk, oil, and vanilla.

In a a separate bowl, whisk together the flours, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Stir the flour mixture into the banana mixture (I used my lowest speed) until just blended - don't overmix. Fold in the nuts (if using). Pour into the prepared pan and bake until the top is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean, about 1 hour.

* I let mine cool in the pan and the bottom was soggy - next time I'll cool it out of the pan on a wire rack.