What is a banapple, you ask? Bananas and apples of course! lol It’s actually cooled down a little in canaryville…we’re out of the 90’sF/30’sC for the most part…today it’s only 72ºF/22ºC! It’s practically freezing! LOL I’ve been in the mood for fall food, cinnamony spicy stuff…heck, I’m almost ready to start boiling potpourri on the stove! In a little over a month Christmas (or insert your own special holiday here) will be upon us…I cannot believe that next week is Thanksgiving already…I’ve barely begun the planning for that, let alone the end of the year festivities…but I’m getting ahead of myself here…I’m still in “it’s finally fall” mode, and wanted to share this delicious banana apple bread recipe with you. :) We can get to the other stuff in due time. 
ps…my friend Allie made a suggestion to convert this recipe to vegan, and I thought I’d share it with you! Her suggestion is to substitute an extra banana for the egg, and use soy milk in place of cow’s milk. Happy eating! 
Ingredients:
2 very ripe bananas (to yield about 1 cup of mashed bananas)
1 cup applesauce
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
a pinch of ground cloves
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 375º F (175ºC).
Grease a bundt pan with vegetable oil.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add mashed bananas, applesauce, milk and vanilla and blend well.
Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt in a small bowl.
Stir flour mixture into banana mixture by hand-only until dry ingredients are just mixed in.
Pour batter into prepared pan and bake approximately 45 minutes to an hour, or until a toothpick inserted in center of bread comes out clean.
Turn baked bread onto a wire rack to cool.
Store tightly covered, or wrapped in plastic wrap.
I put the Nutella in quotes because I actually made my own chocolate hazelnut cream yesterday…it turned out quite good, too. I love bananas and chocolate together…it brings back memories from my childhood of eating chocolate dipped frozen bananas at Valleyfair (an amusement park in Southern Minnesota). I used a technique that I learned over at Chockylit to cut out a cone from the top of the muffin, and fill it with the chocolate hazelnut cream. It was goooood.
For the muffins, I just used my canary bananas banana bread recipe, and scaled down baking time to 25 minutes. The recipe made 18 muffins for me.
Chocolate Hazelnut Cream Recipe:
Ingredients:
4 ounces (100 grams) toasted and peeled hazelnuts (unsalted)
6 ounces (150 grams) sugar
4 ounces (100 grams) dark chocolate (I used Lindtt 59%)
4 ounces (100 grams) milk chocolate (I used Lindtt)
4 ounces (100 grams) white chocolate (I used Nestlé)
8 ounces (200 grams) whole milk
6 ounces (150 grams) sunflower oil
Preparation:
I’m adapting this recipe from my Thermomix cookbook, so please bear with me…
Using a food processor, grind hazelnuts and sugar until a fine powder like consistency is reached, scraping down sides if necessary.
Add chocolate (broken into small pieces) and process until grated.
Place the chocolate hazelnut mixture in the top part of a double boiler.
Melt chocolate, then add milk and oil, whisking constantly until well blended and homogenous.
Pour mixture into glass jars and allow to cool.
To assemble the muffins, first cut a cone out of the top of the muffin.
Fill with hazelnut cream.
Replace cone and drizzle with more hazelnut cream.
So I’ve been trying to watch my calorie intake after having gained a few pounds over the winter. This is *not* an easy thing to do when everyone else in the house wants french fries, guacamole, brownies and other calorie ridden food every day of the week. :P So…I’ve been cutting back, having vegetarian soup as an appetizer before each meal, plus a big salad and only a small portion of what I’ve made, or a variation of the meal prepared “light” for me. This is one of those things that tastes every bit as rich and satisfying as a regular smoothie, yet is very diet friendly. Easy too, so it’s convenient for my busy mornings trying to get 4 kids out the door in time for school.
Ingredients:
1 small container of fat free plain yogurt (4 1/2 ounce / 125 grams)
7-10 strawberries, rinsed and stemmed
1 ripe banana
a splash of vanilla extract
1/2 packet of Splenda (or other sugar substitute to taste)
Preparation:
Buzz everything up in the blender and serve.
Garnish with kiwi if desired.
So here in the Canaries, we’re known for a couple of different things (apart from Presa Canaria dogs). Gofio (a toasted ground corn flour), tomatoes, potatoes, avocadoes, various tropical fruits (guava, pineapple), citrus fruits and of course the “plátano canario (canary banana).” They’re a lot smaller than the chiquita bananas in the States, about half of the size, and are much more flavorful. My kids looooove banana bread, so it is a fairly regular feature on my countertop. The recipe originally comes from the Pillsbury cookbook, but I have modified it a bit, and the results are a lusciously dense and moist (I hate that word, give me an adjective!) bread.
Ingredients:
4-5 very ripe canary bananas (to yield about 2 cups of mashed bananas)
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 375º F (175ºC).
Grease a bundt pan with vegetable oil.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Pour in mashed bananas, milk and vanilla and blend well.
Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl.
Stir flour mixture into banana mixture by hand-only until dry ingredients are just mixed in.
Pour batter into prepared pan and bake approximately 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center of bread comes out clean.
Turn baked bread onto a wire rack to cool.
Store tightly covered, or wrapped in plastic wrap.
