Banana Nut Bread

I have a weakness for banana bread, and it doesn’t help that it usually comes in big loaves. There’s just something so addictive about its fluffy, cakey goodness – so much that soon after this was cooked, I ate two thick slices in record time, something which I rarely do. I swear 😉

The best part about this particular banana bread is its simplicity. It really lets the flavors of the banana + nut shine and is such a breeze to make.

I chose to use hazelnut meal as I’m still stuck with a huuuge bag of of it, and a girl can only make so much nutella!

I’m sure any nut meal would work well, and if you don’t have hazelnut meal on hand I’d highly recommend almond/pecan meal.

Also, don’t forget that you still have a chance to get 20% off Ecolissa clothing and accessories 🙂

Adapted from Choose Veg

Ingredients:

• 2 (preferably ripe) bananas
• 1/4 C maple syrup
• 1/2 C applesauce*
• 1 C whole wheat flour
• 1 C hazelnut meal
• 1 t baking powder
• 1 t baking soda

*Note: The applesauce I used was slightly sweetened. If you’re using unsweetened I would recommend increasing the amount of maple syrup to about a 1/3 cup.

1. Preheat oven to 350F/180C
2. In a medium-sized bowl, mash the bananas. Add the maple syrup and applesauce and stir until well combined.
3. Place the flour and hazelnut meal into a large bowl and sift in the baking powder and soda. Mix until combined.
4. Add the banana mixture to the flour mixture and mix until just combined.
5. Pour batter into an oiled loaf pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted.
6. Cool on a wire rack. Makes one loaf.

I remember seeing this ripe banana and thinking that I finally had an excuse to make banana bread!

I completely forgot that banana bread almost always calls for at least two bananas and the others that I had were definitely not ripe – oops.

I made do and just made sure that I mashed the unripe banana reeaaally well.

Onto the baking: mash your bananas and stir in the syrup and applesauce.

In another bowl, mix together the flour, meal and sifted baking powder and soda.

Add the wet to the dry and mix. Make sure to get all the flour! Can you already see it looking like banana bread? 🙂

Pour batter into an oiled loaf pan and pop into the oven. This banana bread was cooked a lot quicker than others, so do watch after it.

Perfect with a lil’ margarine. Nom.