World’s Best and Easiest-to-bake Banana Nut Bread Ever!

I baked an awesome banana nut bread this weekend (in preparation for a YES! follow up session that sad to say, had to be cancelled) and yes, I had full intention to take pictures and put them up here along with the recipe. But what actually transpired was – Pinch took the two containers of banana nut bread for his Art of Living course (he just taught one this last week) and it was wiped clean. Not a slice left, no crumbs even! Now I had told him that he could take it for his class but he took it to mean – TAKE IT ALL!

So, now I have the memory of a wonderfully moist, soft and sweet, nutty brown banana bread AND a recipe but no pictures, sorry!

Ingredients

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
3 large ripe bananas
1/2 cup applesauce
4 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)
1/2 cup chopped walnut (optional)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Mix the first five (dry) ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.
In a separate bowl, mash the bananas well.
Stir the butter or margarine, vanilla extract and applesauce into the bananas.
Add the banana mixture into the mixing bowl with the dry ingredients.
Mix gently by hand, just enough to form a thick, clumpy batter. If the mixture seems too dry, add more mashed banana or applesauce to adjust the consistency.
Fold in chocolate chips and/or walnuts, if using.
Pour batter into greased loaf pan and bake for 45 minutes or until the bread is a deep golden brown and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Tip: I had bananas that I got more than a week ago. So they were nice and ripe in time for the baking. But if you go to the store and get bananas the night before, the bread won’t be half as good. Yes, I have had that experience too… 🙂 Unless of course, you get super-ripe bananas at the store but that rarely happens, I guess.