Friday, March 13, 2015

MULTI-GRAIN CRANBERRY BANANA BREAD

I couldn't believe how hard it was trying to find a recipe that used both cranberries and bananas. I had both and wanted to use them before they went bad. After looking in about 10 different cookbooks, I finally found this Cranberry Banana Bread recipe in A Taste of Mission Trail (Elementary School) cookbook I bought at an estate sale last year. 

Since the recipe called for 4 cups of flour, I decided to use half and half regular all-purpose flour and whole wheat pastry flour. I have found especially in "fruit" breads to combine the two doesn't alter the taste that much if any. Besides we enjoy the taste of the whole wheat pastry flour. If you don't have whole wheat pastry flour, you could always just use 4 cups of regular flour. I also reduced the amount of sugar the Sue Gallion's recipe called for. It's hard for me to make anything with more than 2 cups of sugar. I decided to reduce it to 2 cups but use truvia blend for the sugar and thereby only use 1 cup. As with the flour, if you don't have a sugar/stevia blend and want to use regular sugar, use 2 cups. It was plenty sweet enough.

Sue said the recipe would make 2 regular sized loaves or 4 mini loaves. I only have 1 regular sized loaf pan (8-1/2 x 4-1/2 inches) now so I used my little blue 1-1/2 pint Pyrex loaf dishes that are approximately 6 x 3-3/4 inches. I had 3 generous smaller loaves. Here is one of them...





MULTI-GRAIN CRANBERRY BANANA BREAD


1/2       cup margarine
1           cup truvia blend
2          eggs
4          cups flour (2 cups all purpose flour + 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
3          teaspoons baking powder
2          teaspoons salt
1           teaspoon baking soda
1-1/2    cups mashed bananas (4 of my bananas)
2          cups chopped cranberries (I used fresh but you could use frozen)
1/2       cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Flour and grease loaf pans. I used my Pan Grease.


Cream butter and sugar until nice and smooth. (I did this while I mashed the bananas.)


Add egg and mashed banana to creamed mixture. 


Stir together dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda) with a whisk.


Add dry ingredients all at once to creamed mixture and blend well on a low (or stir) speed. Batter will be stiff.


Stir together cranberries and nuts 
and add to batter stirring with a spoon.


Divide batter between loaf pans.  makes 2 regular loaves or 3 - 4 small loaves. 


Bake 50 to 60 minutes. I baked mine 50 minutes. I started checking with a toothpick stuck in the center at 40 minutes.

Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes. May need to run a knife around inner edges to loosen the loaf.



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