Everybody, Go Bananas

I feel somewhat disingenuous posting my second ad-libbed, sugarless recipe before the first, but my parents only just rolled in (at one a.m., those rascals) with the leftovers of the finished cheesecake, and I couldn't possibly publish the final recipe without dolling a slice up for the cameras. Instead, I present to you a recipe for sugarless banana bread, that also happens to be vegan-friendly and not entirely bad for you.

Bananarama Bread
makes one delicious loaf

2 cups whole wheat or all-purpose flour

½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp all spice (plus any other spices you feel like adding)

½ tsp salt

½ cup (one stick) margarine or butter, at room temperature
3-4 ripe bananas, the more speckled and smushy the better

¼ cup soy/almond/cow milk, mixed with 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp agave nectar, maple syrup, brown rice syrup, or rapadura

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract (optional)

½ cup chopped walnuts, or chocolate chips, or elephants

1. Preheat the oven to 350º (or if you're blessed with a convection oven, 325º). Grease a 9" x 5" bread pan with the wrapper from the margarine/butter.
2. Whisk together the dry ingredients.
3. Cream the margarine/butter until light and fluffy. Add the remainder of the wet ingredients and whisk, baby, whisk.
4. Add the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until well-incorporated. Fold in the walnuts and elephants, if using, and then pour the batter into the bread pan.
5. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about an hour and ten minutes. (Set your timer to an hour and check every five minutes after that.)

If you want to be super healthy, you can halve the margarine (to ¼ cup) and add ¼ cup of applesauce. Yum!