Almond Banana Bread

I’ve tried this one with no luck and this Cooking Light rendition has been made a few times, but I’ve never been thrilled with the results. I have a wonderful recipe for pumpkin bread that I can eat for days but I’ve yet to find a banana bread recipe worth keeping.

See, I’ve got this problem: I love bananas. I eat at least one a day, sometimes two. Maybe it’s because they are a little more filling than some of it’s other fruit relatives or maybe it’s because they are just plain cheap, but I buy two big bushels every Monday and leave them at work. In an ideal world this would be fantastic – my potassium would be through the roof and they would all get gobbled up before nature takes it’s course, but this is rarely the case. The instant I start seeing any brown specks on a banana I won’t touch them. It’s as if the plague has taken them over and I want nothing to do with the soft innards behind the fading yellow peel. I like my bananas green (thanks, Dad!) and won’t eat them once they’ve started to turn.

If you open our fridge on any given day you will likely find at least 5 or 6 frozen bananas, blackened and shriveled and often leaking juice everywhere. I attempted to give it another shot with a new recipe and succeeded. This bread is awesome! There are so many banana bread recipes where walnuts are thrown in and this one uses almonds instead, with brilliant results. I took this with me on a trip with friends and it got devoured. It’s also quite pretty to look at, don’t you think?

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs;
• 1 cup brown sugar;
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil;
• 1½ cup very ripe banana, mashed;
• 2½ tsp vanilla extract;
• 1½ tsp almond extract;
• 2 2/3 cup flour;
• 1 tsp baking soda;
• 1 tsp baking powder;
• 1 tsp salt;
• 2 tsp cinnamon;
• 1 tsp nutmeg;
• 1 cup plain yogurt;
• 1 cup sliced almonds – ½ cup for inside cake, ½ cup for top. If you prefer you can omit the almonds inside the cake, although I highly recommend it!

Recipe Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer beat eggs, sugar and oil together. Add the banana, vanilla and almond extract, then stir in cinnamon and nutmeg.
3. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add to egg mixture just until blended, then gently stir in yogurt and ½ cup almonds, if using.
4. Pour batter into greased 9×5 inch loaf pan. Sprinkle sliced almonds on top and bake for about an hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. To prevent overbrowning tent with foil after about 35 – 45 minutes. Allow to cool for 15 minutes in pan and then remove and cool completely on wire rack. Enjoy!