Strawberry Banana Bread

Inspiration to add strawberries to traditional banana bread comes from Averie Cooks.  Her food blog is absolutely stunning; I can spend hours scrolling through her beautiful photos and inventive recipes.   Family members were the guinea pigs during a springtime visit to Denver; it was devoured within 24 hours after pulling it from the oven.  I adjusted the volume of sugars and omitted the oil; I wasn’t sure that I could pull it off, but I was working with a scarcity of ingredients. 

Goodbye to yesterday’s dry, crumbly loaves; hello moist, spongy goodness!  The strawberry’s tartness  plays off the banana’s creaminess and cinnamon adds just the right amount of spice.  And with zero oil, there’s less guilt when sneaking that extra nibble.

Proceed with caution…you’ll be hooked!  For a shortcut (but no sacrifice in flavor), see my Shortcut Strawberry Banana Bread recipe.

Ingredients:

1 ¼ C all-purpose whole wheat flour (if possible, buy the White Whole Wheat variety, like Gold Medal brand)
1/3 C white sugar
1/3 C light brown sugar, packed
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp cinnamon
1 medium banana, divided (mash half—about ¼ C mashed banana; slice the other half into about 10 thin slices)
¼ C unsweetened apple sauce
1 egg white, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 C fresh strawberries, diced (frozen strawberries can be used as well)

Method:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and spray a 9×5-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.  In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugars, baking soda and cinnamon and stir to combine.
2. Slice banana in half, mash one half with a fork.  Slice the other half into thin discs.  Stir mashed banana into the dry ingredients.  Combine applesauce, egg white and vanilla extract in a separate bowl then stir in with dry ingredients until just combined.  *Do not over-stir!!!
3. Gently fold in ¾ C strawberries.
4. Pour batter into prepared pan and top with ¼ C strawberries and banana slices, pressing them very gently into the surface of the batter.
5. Bake for 50 minutes to one hour.  Allow bread to cool and serve with fresh sliced strawberries.

Related articles

• Lightened Up French Toast (seacreatively.wordpress.com)
• strawberry banana muffins. (sallysbakingaddiction.com)
• Banana Bread Recipe (thepurplebroom.wordpress.com)

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