Molasses Bread with Apples, Walnuts, and Home Grown Bananas.

Night ride tomorrow.  Time to charge the lights.

Well, what have we here?

Oops, almost forgot about the bananas Popeye cut down before the weekend storm could blow them away. 

Winds at 30-45,  for 2 days straight.  

12 inches of rain.

On Friday he put the bananas out on the work bench, wrapped in a thick towel to speed the ripening process, with the intention of peeling them all for the freezer on Sunday. 

But I guess we got distracted.

Could have been dinner at The Professor and Merry Ann's... 

...with impromptu Octoberfest beer tasting. 

Or, it could have been Merry Ann's Plum Tart.
 

Or maybe the weather was the main distraction...

...and chasing down the loose boards that floated away when the water came up over the dock.

  
When I go out to the work bench today to plug the bike lights into the chargers, I find the bananas.  And surprise!  They are absolutely perfect.

I'm not a big fan of bananas, and these little Ice Cream Bananas are super sweet.  I eat one, but that is about all I am good for until they have been blasted in the blender with some OJ,  protein powder, and a few of the summer's frozen mangoes.   

I set aside a couple bunches for Popeye to eat and commence peeling and bagging the 60 or so that are left.

About half way through the chore, my mind rebels a bit, insisting that there must be something else that bananas are good for besides smoothies. 

Pancakes?  Too gross to think about.  

Bananas Foster?  Better, but still yucky.

Ahh, but something about the idea of Bananas Foster, the colors maybe, attracts me.  

Something about deep, rich browns and the pale glow of bananas and whipped cream....

Deep rich browns...  

Guiness could do it for sure, but we don't have any.  Molasses, maybe.  And cinnamon.

And what about the Honeycrisp apple I had set out to cut up for a snack but forgot all about after finding the bananas? 

     
Sounds like a recipe coming together to me.

Molasses Bread

with Apples, Walnuts, and Home Grown Bananas

1 c. light (no taste) olive oil

3 eggs

1 c. granulated sugar

1/2 c. molasses

1/2 c. brown sugar, packed

1 and 1/2 c. diced apples

1 and 1/2 c. firm bananas, cut into chunks

3 c. all purpose flour

(or substitute spelt flour for one third of the white flour if you like)

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 c. walnuts

Butter two loaf pans.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees - if you are the patient type. 

(I am not.  I set mine on 350.)

Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients with the sugar in another.  Then combine them until you have a dense batter.

Gently mix in the apples and bananas and throw in a couple handfuls of walnuts.  (Or measure out a cup, if you must.)

Divide the batter between the loaf pans, sprinkle with a little sugar, and bake.

If using a 300 degree oven - bake about 1 hour, 20 minutes.

If using 350 - bake about 55 minutes.

Test for doneness by inserting a sharp knife to see if it comes out clean.  Just to be sure, do it in a couple spots.  If you get a massive hunk of banana on the first try, the knife will come back sticky, and you might think the bread isn't done.  Also, don't be afraid if it gets really dark around the edges.  That's a molasses thing.  It's not burned - it's just dark.  And delicious.

As soon as it's cool, I'll slice the loaves, wrap them up, and put them in the freezer out of sight.  Save them for a for a bike trip or some time when we actually need lots of calories.  

So, bananas all peeled, banana bread made... 

Now, where was I?

Oh yeah. 

Go plug in the lights!