Banana Apple Bread

aka "Eva the Diva" Bread

I was about 9 years old when I really got into baking. I would help with the odd batch of cookies before then, but gradually got involved in the more crucial steps like measuring ingredients. My dad turned it into a fractions lesson to reinforce what I learned in school. "We're going to make a 1 1/3 batch of this recipe." I would scoff and start reaching for a calculator. "No, we don't need a calculator. Let's figure it out." Brain-bending as it was, baking clearly became one of my favorite pastimes. And once the goodies were out of the oven, I forgot what a pain it was to solve for fractions of fractions.

Mom didn't push the extreme fraction cogitation as much, and when we baked together, we generally stuck to the original measurements. She did encourage creativity though, and this banana apple bread was a result of that. Instead of plain old banana bread, I thought it would be neat to add some apple chunks to the mix. It turned out marvelously. A moist and sweet quick bread, perfect for slathering with butter.

Also around age 9, I was going through a "diva" phase, probably from watching Eva Gabor on "Green Acres" too much. I even tried talking with a Hungarian accent for a while. (A peculiar child, I know.) Anyhow, I named this recipe Eva the Diva bread. It's been years since I've made it, and I made a few tweaks (like the bread flour to create a stronger crust.) Still has the same great flavor that I remember.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 C all purpose

• 1/2 C bread flour

• 1/4 tsp baking powder

• 3/4 tsp. baking soda

• 1/4 tsp. salt

• 1 C. sugar

• 2 eggs

• 2/3 C. canola oil

• 3 Tbsp. milk

• splash of vanilla extract

• 2 bananas, mashed

• 1 1/2 Tbsp. water

Note: I added a bit of water to slacken the mixture, making it easier to spread into the pans.

• 1 apple, peeled, cored, and cut into small chunks

• 1/2 C. walnut pieces (or pecans for a richer flavor)

• Coarse sugar to sprinkle on top

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350⁰F. Grease and flour two small loaf tins (3x7ish inches).

2. Combine the dry ingredients: flours, baking soda and powder, salt and sugar.

3. Beat in the eggs, oil, milk, vanilla, banana and water, until ingredients are just incorporated.

4. Fold in the apple chunks and walnut pieces.

5. Spread batter into prepared tins. Bake for approximately 1 hour, until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

'Til next time,

Eva