Banana Cranberry Bread

Lunch in the Park, a novel about love and family, is available for sale in multiple electronic formats at Smashwords, for the Kindle at Amazon.com and for the Nook at BN.com Wherever you buy it, it is DRM-free. The delicious recipes that Kate and Jeff cook up are right here on my blog.

I hope you'll read Lunch in the Park, you'll love it, and you'll feel the overwhelming urge to write a review on one or more of the sites above. And of course I'd love to hear from you here on the blog, too. 

"Kate was in the kitchen making banana cranberry bread, which she had learned to make from her own grandfather in his long ago kitchen that always smelled of coffee and baked goods.” Lunch in the Park, New Year's Eve

Kate's grandfather taught her to make the bread as she stood on a kitchen step stool pushed up to the counter so that even as a small child of three or four she could help measure and mix. This recipe does actually come from a grandfather, though not my own.

The world doesn't need one more banana cranberry bread recipe, so I'll give you two instead. One is the original grandfather recipe, the other a veganized version which will won't leave the vegans feeling left out. The pictures on this post are of the vegan version. If you have no vegans about you might still find it useful to have a handful of substitutions at your fingertips in case you find yourself in need of a baked good but you're missing a key ingredient. Coconut oil makes a great substitute for butter because it is solid at room temperature. The flavor isn't strong enough to create a coconut banana bread, and most people won't notice unless you tell them.

This is a great bread to make in mini-loaf pans because you can eat one and then wrap the other three tightly to freeze in case you find yourself needing to produce a gift in honor of a new baby or if The Queen should finally make an appearance.  It's also useful if you, like me, tend to nibble at whatever baked good is sitting on the counter.

Banana Cranberry Bread

Ingredients:
1 cup cranberries
4 ounces butter (1 stick) OR 4 ounces coconut oil
1 cup sugar
3 bananas
2 eggs OR 2 Tablespoons flax seed meal mixed with 6 Tablespoons water
2 cups (8.5 ounces) flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare a bundt pan or 4 mini loaf pans with oil and flour or baking spray.

Chop cranberries and set aside. If using flax seed meal, mix with water and set aside.

Beat butter or coconut oil together with sugar in a large mixing bowl. Beat in bananas. Beat in eggs one at a time, or flax seed meal mixture.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk together for at least 30 seconds to evenly distribute the baking powder and baking soda.

Add flour mixture to wet ingredients. Stir three times. Add chopped cranberries. Stir until flour is just moistened. Pour mixture into prepared pan(s).

Bake for 45-60 minutes (depending on the pan) until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Allow to cool in the pans for 5 minutes and the remove to a wire rack and allow to cool completely before slicing or wrapping for storage.