The Importance of Fat

I went home this weekend, and we all know what that means...banana bread of some sort! Well, this time, it didn't work as I wished. I pulled the muffins out of the oven and decided to check the inside of one. It just wasn't quite right, why? Oh my goodness! I realized that I had totally forgotten to put in any form of fat (or fat substitute)! I had hopes that they might still be good, but when I got up in the morning my mom told me that they had to "punt!" Oh, well! Over Christmas I DID have a very delicious new banana bread recipe, though. This is a gingerbread banana bread that I found at Baking Bites. It ended up with a VERY moist crumb...almost gummy but not quite. I honestly kind of like that texture! I highly recommend this recipe if you want a flavorful bread to go with tea...at least, I assume it would be good with tea! The addition of sugar on top of the batter makes for a lovely change in texture and appearance, my mom even noticed! And for those of you who want to redeem something healthy...it has whole wheat flour AND bananas in it! There you go...eat away! Banana Gingerbread
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground ginger
1 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup banana, mashed (about 2 large)
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup buttermilk
4 tbsp vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a 9×5-inch loaf pan.
In a large bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices.
In a medium bowl, whisk together brown sugar, banana, molasses**, buttermilk and vegetable oil. Pour into dry ingredients and stir until just ombined. Pour into prepared pan and sprinkle with coarse sugar, if desired.
Bake for about 45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.
Makes 1 loaf, 8-10 slices.

**Hint - to more easily get the molasses out of the measuring cup, spray the cup with cooking spray before measuring. It just slides right on out...slow as molasses, but out! :-)