CINNAMON SWIRL BANANA BREAD

As I said in an earlier post,  BANANA SPLIT BREAD

is my all-time favorite banana bread, but I am always willing to try a new recipe for some variety.  Yesterday I saw the recipe for Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread at Lovin'theoven.com and decided I would try it today.  It is really good and I will definitely be making it again.  As I usually do, I used light margarine/butter and artificial sweeteners.  I included the amounts of sugar in parenthesis if you prefer to use sugar.

CINNAMON SWIRL BANANA BREAD

For the bread:  

3   ripe bananas (1  1/2 cups mashed)

1/3   cup light margarine/butter, melted

1/4   cup  +  2  Tablespoon turvia baking blend (or 3/4  cup sugar)

1   egg, beaten

1   teaspoon vanilla

1   teaspoon baking soda

dash of salt

1  1/2    cups all-purpose flour

For the swirl:

2   tablespoon  +  2   teaspoon truvia baking blend (or 1/3  cup sugar)

1   tablespoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour two mini-loaf pans or on 9  x  5 " loaf pan.

Mix bananas, butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla together in a large bowl.  

 

Sprinkle soda and salt (that have been combined in a small bowl) around on top of banana mixture.

Then gently stir in flour.  Be careful not to overmix.

In a small bowl, mix together the sugar and cinnamon for the swirl.

I wanted to make two mini-loaves instead of one big loaf.  The swirl is sprinkled in the middle of the batter. 

(If you are making one big loaf, spoon half of the batter in the pan, sprinkle half of the cinnamon/sugar mixture, top with rest of batter, and then rest of cinnamon/sugar mixture.)

To make two mini-loaves, spoon 3/4  cup of the batter in each loaf pan.  

Sprinkle evenly about 1  tablespoon of the cinnamon/sugar mixture over the batter in each pan.

Carefully, spoon  3/4  cup of the batter over each.

And then top with the rest of the cinnamon/sugar mixture....a little less than a tablespoon on each.

Bake for about 40 minutes.  Check doneness with a toothpick inserted in the center.  Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes.

Loosen around the inside edge with a knife.  Remove from the pans and continue to cool on the wire rack.

(I didn't measure the amount of batter I had, so I spooned a whole cup in the loaf pans at the beginning.  That's why my swirl isn't in the middle....you can see the darker line on the ends....if you use 3/4 cup, it will be in the middle.)

I wanted to share with you these cute little measuring spoons I bought that I use when a recipe calls for a dash, pinch, or a smidgen.  I think they are so cute.  I used the dash one in this recipe.  It is a little less than 1/4  teaspoon.