Spiced Banana Bread

I have literally been making banana bread about once a week for probably at least the last five or six weeks. It is pretty basic, but it is just so darn tasty I figured it should have a spot here on Herbivore Dinosaur. The thing I like most about this is that it is banana bread with pumpkin spice type spices! That way I get to have my pumpkin spice fix for the day and use up bananas that are going a bit over ripe all at once...woohoo!

There are two key parts that make this banana bread top notch as well. One is that you have the butter melted. I forgot this once and it did not turn out the same...still good, but not what I was going for. The second part is to be careful and not to over mix your batter. More on this further down. Ok, now go make banana bread!


what you will need:
3 large very ripe bananas
1 c. sugar
2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
8 tbsp. Earth Balance, or any butter substitutem, melted and cooled
2 egg Ener-G equivalents
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. ground ginger

Peel your bananas and place them in small-ish chunks into your mixer bowl, along with the sugar. Let this mix until the bananas are mushed up, smashed and fairly smooth. While this happens, melt your Earth Balance butter. Once it is melted, set aside to slightly cool until you need it.

Sift your flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves and ginger. Set this bowl of all of the dry ingredients aside for the moment, and mix up your 2 egg equivalents of Ener-G. Once this is ready, add this into your banana sugar mixture. Add your melted butter to the bowl of your wet ingredients, and mix until everything is incorporated.

Now, take your bowl of dry ingredients and now mix this into your wet ingredients. The trick here is to not over mix the batter. You only want to stir the batter until everything is pretty much mixed together. Your goal here is by avoiding over mixing the batter, your air bubbles in the bread will be different sizes, which means a tastier banana bread. To contrast this idea, if you mix too much, you keep breaking down the air bubbles into smaller and more consistent sizes...which means your banana bread once baked will actually be more cake like in nature. Neat, huh?

Pour your batter into a 9x5" or slightly smaller bread pan. If it is not non-stick, you might want to grease it first so it just plops out nice and easily once done baking. Place the pan into a preheated over set to 350 degrees. Bake for 55 - 60 minutes, check and see if a toothpick or knife or fork comes out clean right in the middle. If not, place back in the oven for a few minutes and repeat. Let the bread cool in the pan for about 15 - 20 minutes, and then proceed to take it out of the pan to be placed on a cooling rack.

Enjoy with a hot cup of tea or coffee.