Humpastry Day - Banana Bread

Banana Bread

For some reason, some of my bananas always get brown and overripe before my family and I can eat them. But, I always stick them in the freezer so I can use them for baking.  At any given time I usually have about 3-4 bananas in the freezer, so I guess it works out nicely for us.   Maybe I should buy less bananas, but then I wouldn't have any to make this yummy banana bread whenever I wanted it.  :)

As a side note, I just discovered that frozen bananas work great in smoothies!  They lend a great banana taste to the smoothie and I don't have to worry about adding ice because they're frozen and make the smoothie the perfect consistency.  Sorry about the smoothie tangent, now back to the bread.

My family really likes this bread because it has a nice flavor to it.  It's does not have a strong banana flavor like the banana bread slices you get from coffee shops or coffee carts.  I swear they  have to add some kind of extra banana flavor to get them to taste like that.  But, it's really yummy as a breakfast treat, especially when it's served alongside a fruit salad or a smoothie. You can toast it or eat it as is, and it's good with a little butter or plain.

Ingredients:
Makes 1 loaf

*  2/3C Turbinado/raw sugar
*  1/3C Canola oil
*  2 flax eggs (2Tbls ground flax mixed with 6Tbls. warm water)
*  1/4C vanilla yogurt (or unsweetened applesauce)
*  1tsp. vanilla extract
*  2 mashed bananas (thawed, if frozen)

*  3/4C whole wheat flour
*  3/4C whole wheat pastry flour
*  1tsp. baking powder
*  1/2tsp. baking soda
*  1/2tsp. salt
*  1Tbl. gluten

Directions:
I made mine in my bread maker, which is easy peasy.  But, I will give you regular directions too.

For the bread maker:
1.  Set bread maker to the "batter bread" program.
2.  Put all ingredients from sugar to bananas into the bread maker and push start.
3.  Meanwhile mix in a separate bowl all the ingredients from whole wheat flour to gluten.
4.  When the program is in the continuous knead cycle (when it starts spinning really fast), add the bowl of dry ingredients to the bread maker.
5.  Use a spatula to scrape down the sides and make sure everything gets mixed together.
6.  Close the lid and wait for it to be done!  See...easy peasy!

Regular directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Mix all ingredients from sugar to bananas together in a mixer.
3.  In a separate bowl mix all the ingredients from whole wheat flour to gluten.
4.  Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet until just combined.
5.  Pour mixture into a slightly greased loaf pan.
6.  Bake for around 60 minutes, or until a knife/toothpick comes out clean.

Enjoy!