For the love of bananas!

I love bananas! Mixed in with crunchy flakes and cool milk, bananas are a perfect companion to my morning cereal. They are also great on their own and prove to be a refreshing snack if eaten cold. 

We were going to go on a short trip to Santa Barbara a while back, so I picked up a few ripe bananas to take along with us. The trip got delayed and the bananas quickly began to show their brown spots.  I couldn't consume all of them in one shot, so I decided to try another banana bread recipe that I found on Gina's site. I didn't want to bake two loaves, so I cut the recipe in half.  The bananas I had were far from being over ripe. They had brown spots on them, but were still firm so when I mashed them, I had little chunks of banana. The banana chunks baked in the cake created tiny, moist pockets of sweetness that I just love.

Banana Walnut Bread



I couldn't resist eating a slice before taking this picture.

 4 ripe bananas (not over ripe), mashed
1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1 1/4 cup white whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup natural cane sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and line a loaf pan with parchment or grease the pan with butter.

In a bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.  In a separate bowl mix melted butter and sugar. Add eggs, mashed banana, apple sauce and vanilla.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients until just combined. Fold in chopped walnuts.  Pour into loaf pan and bake for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.  Cool for 10 minutes and run a knife around the edges of the pan. Cool for another 10 minutes before enjoying.