Live the Live ™

There are a million banana bread recipes out there, so let’s just get this over with and call mine a million-and-one! What makes this banana bread special is that it’s got loads of flavor. It uses whole wheat flour…less sugar…and no artificial extracts that make most banana breads taste like crap. This one relies on very ripe bananas to give it its wonderful natural flavor.
It’s not always easy to get bananas to ripen exactly when you’re trying to make your banana bread recipe. So here’s what I do: I by a large bunch of bananas and let them get very ripe at room temperature. I then take 5 at a time (for this recipe), peel them, and place the bananas in a Ziploc bag in the freezer. When it’s time to make banana bread, I just pull one of those Ziplocs out of the freezer and let it thaw. This also works really well when you need bananas for smoothies.

ALZ BANANA BREAD

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
5 medium-sized bananas, peeled and mashed
2 tsp real vanilla extract

Cooking spray

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
Combine sugar and oil in mixing bowl and mix at medium speed for 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time. Beat until mixture is light and lemon colored.
With mixer running at low speed, add flour mixture alternately with bananas, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Blend well after each addition. Add vanilla and blend some more to mix.
Pour batter into 2 loaf pans that have been sprayed with cooking spray. Bake for 45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes in loaf pan on wire rack.
Remove from pan and let cool completely on wire rack.