Banana Nut Bread

So, I got up yesterday morning, always a good start to any day, shuffled into the kitchen and discovered that all the bananas were exceptionally ripe. Well, no one is going to eat those I thought and began wondering what I could do with them beside the obvious of throwing them out. Then it hit me - banana nut bread. Only one problem, I had never made banana nut bread in my life, let alone a vegan version of it. I scurried over to the computer and went to my go to site for recipes - vegweb.com. This site is so awesome! It has never disappointed me yet. Type in any recipe that you are looking for a vegan version of and you will get not one, but usually many recipes with comments from members who have already tried it. I just love it. Anyhow, there were several versions of banana nut bread. I chose the one that was the easiest and that I already had most of (it never hurts to change things up a bit) the ingredients for. This recipe is so sinfully simple, but so scrumptious. You mix it all in one bowl, pour it in the loaf pan, pop into the oven and 50 minutes later you have a moist, mouth watering banana nut bread ready to be devoured. Here's the recipe just in case you want to give it a go yourself:

Beautiful Banana Bread

Ingredients (use vegan versions):

3 bananas
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground flax seeds
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 to 1 teaspoon cinnamon (depending on how much you like cinnamon)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions: Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, mash bananas well with a fork or potato masher. Add applesauce, maple syrup, sugar and flax seeds and mix to combine.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon and mix thoroughly (or you don't have to do this step if you don't feel like it, it works just as well to just dump all the dry ingredients into the wet without mixing first). Mix the dry and wet ingredients thoroughly then add the nuts if you are using them.

Put into a regular sized loaf pan sprayed with non-stick spray and bake for 50 minutes to one hour (or until the loaf starts to turn golden brown and the toothpick test is successful - just keep an eye on it).

Remove loaf pan from oven and cool on wire rack for 5 minutes. Transfer loaf to wire rack and cool completely, or as long as you can wait.

Okay, as you know I can't really follow a recipe exactly as it is written. So, my bread didn't have flax seeds in it and I was short on walnuts so I added some pecans to the mix. It turned out great and I dare you to wait until it's cool to try it :-)