Banana Bread in the Bread Machine

Nothing tastes better than a slice of warm banana bread on a cold day.  Unfortunately, bread takes a little extra time to prepare and bake.  With this recipe, the bread machine will do all of the work for you and you get to enjoy all of the cinnamon-banana goodness.

A few years ago bread machines were quite trendy, but their popularity has since faded and most people pushed this handy appliance to the back of their shelves.  With winter upon us, this is a great time to pull out that bread machine and make a loaf of delicious and healthy banana bread.  By including the whole wheat flour the end result is a more compact loaf, which only intensifies the banana flavor, and increases the health benefits. 

** Bread Machine Recipe

1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 cup All-Purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 cup Sugar
5 TB Cinnamon Applesauce
1 tsp Vanilla
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
2 Eggs
1 TB Hot Water
2 1/2 Large Bananas ( or 3 small bananas)
Cinnamon-Sugar Mixture

Place ingredients in the pan of a bread machine.

Select the DOUGH setting and press start. Mix the bread about 5 minutes until the bananas are well combined into the batter. If needed, use a rubber spatula to push dough from the sides of the bread pan.

After the 5 minutes, when the dough is well blended, press STOP and sprinkle the top of batter with the Cinnamon-Sugar Mixture.

Select the BAKE setting and press start. The Bake Cycle time may vary with machines, but cooking time will be about 50 - 60 minutes.

To test bread for doneness, insert a toothpick into the center of the bread. If the bread is done, the toothpick will come out clean. If there is dough on the toothpick, reset the machine and BAKE 10 to 15 minutes longer.

When the bread is completely baked, remove pan from bread machine and cool.