Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread

These last few days have been busy.

 I visited the dentist, taught myself to knit, my mom and I took my car in to get checked, we tried a bowl of Mexican gumbo at Qdoba Mexican Grill which was delicious (It's like a burrito bowl + tortilla soup), I bought Oddball a cute lion costume which he thinks is a new chew toy, took Oddball, Marley, & Dusty to get some shots, did a little shopping, had some extended family come over who were visiting from out of town, went out to dinner with the whole family, and then I had another physical therapy session which has been helping my lupus.

  I had a few golden, spotted bananas left on the counter and I was wondering what to make with them. I found a lot of new recipes like banana oat cookies that are dairy, gluten, and oil free, but the recipe only said 2 bananas, but didn't tell the measurements. Normally that would be okay since the bananas we usually get are average size, but the leftover bananas we had  were really big so I didn't want to mess up a recipe by adding too little or too much banana and having a ruined creation. So I went with a newer banana bread recipe that I found on foodgawker that measured the mashed bananas.
  This recipe was not one that I had to debate on making because it involved some of my favorite things: cinnamon, bananas, and breakfast bread, plus you can top it off with a glaze! Also this bread recipe only contains 4 tablespoons of butter, no oil,  and only 3/4 cup of sugar (not including the glaze). I made a few small tweaks, but this recipe is a keeper.

 Even if you don't really like the taste of bananas (my mom is one) then this is still a great way to use extra bananas since you mostly taste the cinnamon sugar, though the banana taste becomes a little stronger after sitting overnight. I think next time I'll add some shredded coconut to give it a little more texture and might try using coconut palm sugar instead of brown sugar.

Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread

Recipe: Sally's Baking Addiction 

2 cups white whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
4 tbsp (1/2 stick) butter, room temperature
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 1/2 cups ripe bananas, mashed (about 2.5 -3 bananas)
1/3 cup greek yogurt (I used Chobani Plain Greek 0%)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Cinnamon Swirl

1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Simple Glaze (optional: I just made enough glaze to use for the pictures)
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp milk (dairy free or not), half & half, or cream

Notes:

• You can use all purpose flour instead of white whole wheat or you could even try using all purpose gluten free flour to make this GF. 
• I added 2 tbsp of natural applesauce in the banana mixture to make 1 11/2 cups.
•  Glass Pan? A few times when I have baked in a glass pan, the edges of the bread were cooked, but the inside was sill gooey. A tip for baking in a glass pan is to lower the oven temperature by 25 degrees and/or decrease baking time by about 10 minutes. Sometimes the baking time is still the same or even a tab bit longer depending on what type of bread you are making so just keep an eye on it. 

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a 9×5-inch metal loaf pan with cooking spray or line with parchment.

2. In a large measuring container or a medium bowl, combine the mashed banana, yogurt,and vanilla. You can do this ahead of time and just cover with plastic wrap and store it in the fridge for a few hours.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.  In a separate large bowl, beat the brown sugar and butter on medium speed until well blended. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.  Slowly add in the dry ingredients in batches. Batter will be thick so do not over mix!

4.Pour half of the batter into prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar mix. Top with remaining batter and sprinkle with any leftover sugar mix. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick is inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 15-20 minutes in the pan on a wire rack. Run a knife between the bread & pan  before flipping the bread out, and letting it cool completely on the wire rack.

5. Make the glaze in a small bowl by combining the powdered sugar and milk. Add more powdered sugar until you reached desired thickness. Drizzle over the cooled banana bread slices before serving. 

Wrap the extra bread in plastic wrap or store in a resealable bag. 
Freezing: I wrap the cooled bread in plastic wrap before storing in a freezer bag. Take the bread out about 24 hours before eating to thaw. This bread is really good served warm so you can zap it in the microwave.