Damn Good (Vegan) Banana Bread

Banana bread is my one of my favorite breakfast/snack/dessert/whenever breads, coming in second only to pumpkin bread (surprise!).  As such, I've had quite a few varieties over the years: store-bought, homemade, bakery-fresh...you name it, I've had it!

As yesterday was Father's Day and as I had 4 over-ripe bananas sitting on my kitchen counter, I decided to whip up a batch of 'nana bread to take to my family's Father's Day lunch celebration.  I began looking through my many tried-and-true recipes, but they were all overly complicated for the amount of time I had to get something in the oven.  This led me to decide to throw together some simple ingredients and hope for the best.

Now, I have experimented with recipes many times over the years and way more often than not, I end up chunking my creation du jour.  Generally speaking, I just don't have a knack for creating good recipes.  So, though the finished product both looked and smelled heavenly, I was nervous about how it would taste.  Given my track record with recipe creation, imagine my surprise when it tasted divine!  Yay, success!

Note #1: I decided to bake this in a pie plate instead of a loaf pan for two reasons:

• Speed of baking.  By having a thinner layer of the batter, it would bake up faster and I was short on time.
• Larger surface area.  Also by having the batter spread out, it would give me a larger surface area on which to sprinkle some extra brown sugar for crunchy sweet goodness.
• Plus!  It looks prettier this way, if I do say so myself!

Note #2: this recipe contains way less sugar than any of the other recipes I have and it was still plenty sweet.  Next time I make this, I plan to cut back on the sugar even more.  I will report back with the results!

Damn Good (Vegan) Banana Bread
serves: 8 @ 6 PointsPlus per serving
prep time: 5 minutes
baking time: 35-40 minutes

Wet Ingredients:
4 large over-ripe bananas, sliced & mashed
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla

Dry Ingredients:
1/3 cup + 2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 350*F. 
2. Very lightly oil a pie plate.*
3. In a large bowl, combine the wet ingredients with 1/3 cup of the brown sugar.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients.
5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet, stirring as you go.
6. Pour the batter into the pie plate and sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons of brown sugar on top.
7. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until done.  The sugar will be melted into the bread and the bread itself should spring back when touched.
8. Try your best not to devour in one sitting!

*I use my Misto Oil Sprayer for this task, with a very light hand.  I then take a paper towel and use it to spread around the tiny bit of oil in the pie plate.  This both gives the plate a light coating, so that the finished bread won't stick and removes excess oil.