Banana Nut Bread with a banana glaze.....tested, tested....recipe

If you look on the internet you will fine plenty of banana bread recipes, over the years I have tried many, but I always went back to my favorite one. In the past three years I have started making a banana glaze to top this delicious treat...My Gardner Guy loves it. The best thing about this recipe is that it freezes well. In fact I have a few grandcritters who perfer eating it this way (partly frozen). This bread is good with and without the special banana glaze. My Gardner Guy has a very sweet tooth come 8:00 pm every evening....with the glaze it's more like a cake to him!!!

Banana nut bread...

1/2 cup butter (or 1/2  cup of mashed banana) See notes below...Health-conscious

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp of baking soda disolved in 4 Tbsp of milk
2 cups flour
3 bananas (smashed)
1/2 cup of nuts (optional)

To start with add baking soda to milk set a side and smash up your ripe bananas. Cream butter and sugar, add eggs and vanilla. Add the flour, soda mixed with milk and bananas....mix well and last add the nuts of your choice. Walnuts and pecans work great as well as taste great in this bread. This recipe makes three small loaves or one large one. The baking time for the small loaves in arounf 45-50 minutes, I find when I do a large loave it takes longer to get the center completely done. Around 60-65 minutes. To keep bread from getting to dry or brown the last 15 mintues I cover the loaf with a sheet of tin foil.Bake at 350 degrees...

Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar
3 tbsp. liquid (milk - water - fruit juice, etc.) I use milk
1/4 cup of dried banana chips grounded (I use small coffee grinder)

Mix all the ingredients and spread on warm bread......

Health-conscious cooks know that applesauce, prunes, pumpkin puree and mashed bananas may substitute for all or some of the butter used in baking. If you're lucky enough to have a trusted low-fat cookbook that already has done the calculating for you, follow the recipes. But if you'd like to transform a beloved traditional recipe, you may need to experiment. Sources like MayoClinic.com suggest replacing about half of the butter or other fats with mashed banana, while some extension services claim that bananas may replace all of the butter with good results.
Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/432982-how-to-replace-butter-with-banana-in-baking/#ixzz1n5Be0slw

Drying your own banana tips...http://mygardnerguy.blogspot.com/2012/02/banana-chips-homemade-with-food.html

Dried Banana Chips...

Banana Chips - Homemade With A Food Dehydrator Versus Store Bought....

Once you dry these you will always want them in your pantry....it's easy, tasty and good for you.

Homemade Banana Chips Are 100% Natural

By Food-Dehydrator.com

Banana chips are a great tasting, healthy snack that can be easily made with a food dehydrator. Banana chips’s basic ingredients should consist of:

• ripe or slightly overripe fruit


• if desired, lemon or lime juice (I never use)

To make banana chips: Peel the bananas and cut them crosswise into about 1/4 inch thick chips. If desired, before dehydrating, you can dip the banana chips into lemon or lime juice to help prevent browning post drying. If the bananas are pretreated with citrus juice, make sure they are well drained and dried before placing them in the food dehydrator. Dry the banana chips at 130 degrees Fahrenheit for up to 8 to 10 hours. The chips should feel dry and leathery when done.

Homemade banana chips are a wholesome, healthy, 100% fruit snack that are easy and fun to make. They are very sweet and have an intense banana flavor due to the food’s reduced water content which intensifies the fruit’s natural sugars.

In contrast to homemade banana chips, store bought dried bananas are typically deep fried in unhealthy oils, like coconut or palm oils. These oils contain high amounts of saturated fats. Further store bought banana chips can be covered with additional sugars or honey. In fact, Self Nutrition Data lists a 3 ounce serving of fried banana chips as containing 44% of the daily recommended amount of fat and 123% of the daily recommended amount of saturated fat.

To recap:

Homemade banana chips – 100% fruit, 100% natural ingredients and sugars

Store bought banana chips – Fruit, but also unhealthy saturated fats and added sugars

Go with the real thing – home made banana chips made with your food dehydrator