Banana Bread

This recipe is a merger of two separate ones. The first and bulk of the recipe comes from a "low fat" recipe that I found. Then I saw the picture above in a Raley's magazine and I had to incorporate the smiling, happy gooey layer into my normal bread. I have done bread a few times but I also do muffins and mini-bread-loaves too with this recipe- just adjust the cooking time WAY down and keep an eye on it so you pull it out when it is done.

Banana Bread

2 eggs
2/3 cup white sugar
2 very ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup applesauce
1/3 cup nonfat milk
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
3/4 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans)

Nut mixture:
1 1/4 cup chopped nuts
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
4 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 325. Spray a full sized bread pan with nonstick cooking spray and dust lightly with flour. In a large bowl, beat eggs and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in bananas, applesauce, milk, oil, vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Stir flour mixture into banana mixture, just until blended. Fold in walnuts. Pour half of batter into bread pan, and then add half of the nut mixture. Repeat the layers one more time, ending with nut mixture on top. Do not fill pans more than half way or they will go overflow while baking. Bake in a preheated oven until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about one hour. Turn bread out onto a wire rack and let cool.

12 servings.

Nutritional Info (of original recipe, minus the nut mixture).
182 calories, 4 g fat, 36 mg cholesterol, 1 g fiber, 207 mg sodium, 4 g protein.