Banana Bread

The warm fire and the cozy sweater that my nanny got me for Christmas was all that I needed this morning to make a fresh loaf of banana bread Goodness, do I live for baking. The combination of measuring ingredients out as a chemist would in a lab alongside the musical stylings of AWOLnation just gets me worked up. And not to mention greasing my favorite bread pan...the one that I bought ten years ago when I began baking.

This banana bread follows a standard recipe that I created years ago for cranberry walnut bread. That is the beauty of the recipe. It interchanges without fail and can be a staple for any design that you create (hello, zucchini bread, carrot bread, and even lemon poppyseed lavender bread). My suggestion for this bread is to watch the oven carefully to avoid burning the bottom of the delectable bread.

Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1/4 cup honey or agave syrup or just skip the sugar and swap in more bananas
• 3-4 bananas
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup almond milk or other milk (ew.)
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp coarse salt (I only use kosher sea salt)
• 2 tsp chia seeds (optional, but wonderful)
• 1 cup walnuts

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray a bread loaf pan with nonstick spray or rub it down with butter.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and syrup together until well-combined.
3. In another small mixing bowl, mash the bananas with the chia seeds, vanilla, and almond milk.  Once well smooshed, fold in the walnuts. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients bowl.
4. Mix well until a nice batter is formed. Pour into the loaf pan.
5. Bake for 55 minutes.

Because this recipe is sooo easy to make, try doing a double batch. You can freeze one loaf wrapped in plastic wrap and then store in a freezer bag. Always, always let the bread the bread cool all of the way before storing.

This bread, if not eaten, will last one week on the counter stored in a sealed container.