SMS: Mom’s Banana Apple Bread!

This week’s SMS recipe was chosen by Joy of Hot Oven, Warm Heart: Mom’s Banana Apple Bread! A few weeks ago I picked up a ton of bananas at the store from the marked-down, day old produce section and immediately stuck them in my freezer so I’d be prepared when recipes like this popped up. I did have to run out to pick up the Granny Smith apples and wow, did they ever look sad. I wasn’t too worried since I knew I’d be sauteing them up with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon, but I am so ready to head to our local orchard and get some gorgeous apples next month!

Melissa bakes her bread in a 1 1/2-quart loaf pan, but I opted to make muffins instead (mainly because I started baking at midnight on Friday and muffins bake much more quickly than bread!). I also substituted white whole wheat flour for half of the all-purpose flour in the recipe. The sauteed apples did make it into the batter, but just barely. I could easily have stood by the stove eating each and every last bite of those sugary apples with my wooden spoon!

I got 18 muffins from the recipe; they baked in just over 20 minutes and smelled fantastic when they came out of the oven. So, of course, I found the runt of the batch and sampled it almost immediately, while it was still warm. It tasted just as good as it smelled! The caramelized apple bits add sweetness and texture to the muffin and I loved the warmth from the cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. The muffins were also moister than any banana bread recipe I can recall having tried. Bonus: I couldn’t tell I’d used any whole wheat flour so I would almost certainly use it again when I make this recipe! Many thanks to Joy for choosing such a delicious recipe! You can find the recipe on her site and be sure to visit the SMS site to see how everyone else fared this week.