B-A-N-A-N-A-S

My nephew Scout has a very sophisticated palate for a 3 year old. He eats salmon, sushi and loves Starbucks. His grandparents and his mom (my sister) are faithful Starbucks patrons and have brought him along on thousands of trips to the ubiquitous coffee shop since he was a young baby. He loves their marble bread and eats it with chocolate milk every time he tags along on one of their coffee runs. The cutest thing is when the Starbucks employees mistakenly give him Banana Bread in place of his beloved Marble bread. He takes one bite and proclaims, "They gave me Nanner bread by bistake". It is hilarious!

Banana Bread
Adapted from epicurious.com

Ingredients

3 ripe bananas, mashed (about 2 cups)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons melted butter

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Mash the Bananas by hand.

Lightly spray a 5 x 9-inch loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray.

Combine the bananas, vanilla, egg, cinnamon and brown sugar in a large bowl and mix well.

In another bowl combine the flour and baking powder and mix well.

Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture and mix lightly.

Add the melted butter and mix just until moistened.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove the bread from the pan and cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes before slicing.

I don't eat bananas so needless to say I didn't try this creation. Forrest said he really liked it and I proceeded to interrogate him further on what exactly did he like about it. He said that it was really moist and he liked how it had chuncks of banana inside the bread (an obvious product of hand mashing and mixing as opposed to using a mixer like several other recipes I found had suggested).