PEANUT BUTTER BANANA BREAD

I am so glad that it is finally warming up this week. I wasn't sure it was going to happen. Our dogwood trees still have not bloomed, but the pear tree is and also our young peach tree. For the first time, a couple of redbuds are also blooming this year. The trees - not so much. We mainly have maples (red and one huge silver), a few locust trees in the ditch behind our house, one magnolia tree, and an ash in addition to three dogwoods, a peach, and an apple tree. Not sure if the young apple tree is going to bloom this year or not. So far, it hasn't. Most of these trees still look like winter unless you look closely and you can see the leaves started to bud out.

Some might think this Peanut Butter Banana Bread sounds like something you would bake in the winter. I do admit I probably do have some ingredients (the first one that comes to my mind is pumpkin) that I do seem to use in a particular time in the year. This recipe made two loaves which turned out nice because I made a dessert on Monday for our Farkle friends that didn't turn out great so I took a loaf of this bread along just in case. They really loved it and Friend Carol especially liked using the miniature chocolate chips as they spread out nicely in the bread.

Because I was making the recipe primarily for my husband and me, I used stevia for the sugar and also substituted one cup of whole wheat flour for one cup of the all-purpose flour. I also used nonfat plain Greek yogurt for the sour cream that the recipe called for.

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PEANUT BUTTER BANANA BREAD

3/4       cup creamy peanut butter
1/4       cup butter
2          cup sugar (I used stevia)
4          eggs
3          cups flour (I used 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour + 2 cups all-purpose flour.)
2         teaspoons baking soda
1/4      teaspoon salt
1/2      cup Greek plain non-fat yogurt or sour cream
2         cups mashed bananas
1         cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
2         teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease bottoms only of two 8 x 4 - inch loaf pans.

Place peanut butter and butter in a microwaveable bowl and heat on High for 30 - 45 seconds or until butter is melted.

(If butter is almost melted, it will finish melting as you

stir it smooth.)

Beat sugar and eggs on medium speed for 1 minutes

or til blended.

On low speed, add the melted peanut butter/butter mixture;

beat well.

Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl.

Add flour mixture alternately

with the yogurt beating on low til blended. (Start and end with flour.)

Stir in bananas, mini chips, and vanilla. Scrape the sides of the bowl as needed.

Divide the batter between the two pans. 

Bake 70 to 75 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center of the bread.

Cool 10 minutes on wire rack.

Remove loaves from the pans and finish cooling on wire rack.

Wrap in foil to keep moist.