Blueberry Banana Bread

Aloha! We're back from an amaaazing vacation in Kauai. It was tough to return last week, but it's also nice to be back home, of course. I have missed baking in my kitchen! I didn't do one lick of baking while on our trip. We did, however, eat a lot of yummy foods that I'll have to share with you at some point. :)

The day after we returned from our vacation, I took the day off from work to rest and recover (the time change/jet lag from Hawaii to the east coast is a killer!), to get some errands done, and of course...to bake! I made a batch of some delicious maple snickerdoodles, and I tried a new recipe for blueberry banana bread since I had both ripe bananas and blueberries frozen in the freezer, waiting to be used in a baked treat. This recipe is definitely a keeper! It's from the blog, Daily Garnish. I wanted to make several mini loaves to give to people as gifts for various reasons, and this was a great recipe for that. As is, the recipe made 8 mini loaves for me (in my Crate and Barrel mini loaf pan). It makes one 8 x 4 or 9 x 5 loaf if you'd like to make it as one loaf. I changed the recipe just slightly (my ingredients are listed below), and the original recipe is here.

Ingredients:

-1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (you could easily substitute whole wheat flour here! I actually meant to and forgot)

-2 tsp. baking powder

-1/2 tsp. salt

-1/2 cup brown sugar

-1/4 cup sugar

-1 cup ripe, mashed banana (should equal about 2 large bananas)

-1 tsp. vanilla

-2 eggs

-1/2 cup yogurt (I used Dannon light n' fit banana flavor)

-1 cup blueberries (I used some I had frozen; you can also use fresh, of course!)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, mash the bananas with a fork, and add to them the sugars, vanilla, eggs, and yogurt until well combined. Mix the wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients, until just combined. Fold in the blueberries. Pour batter into a greased loaf pan (or several mini pans), and bake for 1 hour (my mini loaves took about 25 minutes; they're tiny!) until the top is lightly golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

Delicious and pretty healthy too! This was the perfect recipe to satisfy my baking itch upon our return from vacation...  I was dying to make something but it needed to be easy since I was tired and didn't have a lot of time. Perfection right here in this banana blueberry bread, folks! :)