Mama Steph’s banana-peach breakfast bread

I’ve been craving peaches lately. Fresh, warm from the sun, sweet peaches. Soft with ripeness and velvet-y fuzz. The scent when you hold this kind of peach to your nose is sweet and fragrant, and when you bite into one, the juice drips down your chin if it’s a really good one.

But it’s May, and peaches like that are not available just yet. I had to come up with an alternative to a warm, sweet fresh peach, so I made a warm, sweet, peachy bread.

This bread, which I kind of threw together Thursday night, was an idea I came up with when I was asked to do a baking segment on Friday morning during Good Morning East Texas on KLTV. I had two ripe bananas, some cans of peaches, and some applesauce, so I thought I’d use it all in one moist, dense bread.

It worked.

The bread was spiced with cinnamon and ginger, as they both pair so beautifully with peaches, and I used brown sugar as well as white.

The peaches and the bananas both make a statement in this bread; you know they’re there, and they complement each other nicely.

After it cools for awhile, you’ll slice off a thick, warm sliver, and you’ll see chunks of peaches, set off like jewels in the spicy brown bread. It’s moist, it holds together nicely, and it’s delicious.

I hope you’ll try it for breakfast, or anytime, soon. Maybe it’s something mom would like for breakfast on her special day!

Mama Steph’s Banana-peach bread

Ingredients:

one large egg, plus one egg white (or use equivalent amount of egg substitute)

1/2 c granulated white sugar

1/2 c packed brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup canola oil (or substitute light olive oil)

4 TBS applesauce

1 to 1 1/2 cups peach slices (use fresh during summer for best flavor), chopped

2 ripe bananas, mashed

dry ingredients:

1 1/2 c. plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

Method:

Whisk together the dry ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl

Stir the wet ingredients together in a large mixing bowl until well-combined.

Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, stirring only until combined.

Pour into greased or sprayed loaf pan or muffin tins.

Bake at 350 degrees until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. (for loaf pan, about 50 minutes; for muffin tins, varies depending upon size.)

Nice additions would be maybe 1/2 cup slivered almonds, pecan pieces, walnut pieces, or even coconut. You could also replace the peach slices with apple slices, plum slices, nectarine slices, or whatever else you can find in the pantry. Have fun with it and be creative!