An Apple (or Two) a Day

As I mentioned last week, Ted made a trip to the farm stand.  My way of dealing with the apple overload was to make a big pot of applesauce.  Great idea, right?

Everyone around here started out very enthusiastic about the applesauce.  Kate was having it as a little snack in the evening.  Ted had a bowl here and there.  But applesauce, like spaghetti, seems to grow instead of diminish and, a week later, we still had enough applesauce to serve an army.

I like an orderly refrigerator and that bowl of applesauce was just taking up too much space.  I tried changing the bowl to something a little smaller, but it was still in the way.  It was time to cook with applesauce.

I'd heard about applesauce bread but had never made one.  I consulted my close personal friend Google and there were lots of recipes, but none that "spoke to me".  So, I decided to make one up myself.

This may not sound like a big deal to you, but I am a cookbook person.  I'm willing to give others the job of "making up" the recipes.  I'm happy to take credit for "following directions", but I'm cool with someone else have their name on the cover page of the cookbook.

So, we've established that I am not usually a recipe writer.

This is why this applesauce bread is so remarkable.  It's good.  And I made it up myself.  Go figure.

I have caught the bug and am going to make it again and again to see if I can make my bread even better.

Suggestions are welcome.

Recipe:  Applesauce Banana Bread

Ingredients:

1/2 cup mashed banana (1 banana)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup applesauce
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup oatmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon allspice
3/4 cup buttermilk

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350F.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the banana, sugars, and applesauce.  Add the eggs one at a time, and then the vanilla.

In another mixing bowl, combine the flours, oatmeal, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice.

Add one third of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.  Combine well.  Add half of the buttermilk. Combine.  Add the next third of the dry ingredients followed by the rest of the buttermilk.  Combine.    Add the rest of the dry ingredient and combine.  Do not over mix.

Pour into a greased 8-inch loaf pan and bake for 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Let cool for 10 minutes and then remove from the pan.