Blueberry Cherry Banana Bread

Its the second Thursday of July and hence the reveal day of

BEHIND THE CURTAIN DESSERT CHALLENGE !!

This month, the two ingredients that Sheryl wanted us to include in our desserts were Blueberries and Lemon, a marriage made in heaven ! i however had a hard time to keep the marriage intact. you see, i had made some very lofty plans for this round of the dessert challenge. but when plan A and plan B failed miserably and left me with just a few blueberries and a few hours in hand, i resorted to this humble Blueberry Cherry Banana Bread, which by the way is also vegan....

Though its just another Banana Bread, its really quite tasty. I made it for the first time a few weeks back when i had two over ripe bananas at my disposal. and then when a new pack of bananas arrived i kept two aside and let them ripen so that i could make this loaf again. yes. this loaf is that good. once you have tasted it, you'll want to come back to it over and over again..

I adapted this recipe from FatFree Vegan Kitchen. Her loaf is oil free and is a tad-­bit healthier than mine. But i had to make a few additions and substitutions, because i couldn't imagine a banana bread otherwise...

Blueberry Cherry Banana Bread Adapted from FatFree Vegan Kitchen

ingredients        2 over­-ripe bananas 2 tbsp lemon juice 6 oz unsweetened apple sauce 1/2 cup light brown sugar * 2 cups + 2 tsps all purpose flour** 3/4 tsp baking powder 3/4 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 1/3 cup olive oil 1/2 cup frozen cherries 1/4 cup blueberries 1/2 cup almonds, chopped zest of one lemon       * you might want to add another 1/8 cup of sugar in case your banana are not over­-ripe.     ** the 2 tsp of flour is used for coating the cherry and berries before adding them to the batter. -  what i did first of all i added 2 tsps of flour to the frozen cherries and blueberries to coat them lightly and set them aside. i then preheated the oven to 350 degrees F and buttered a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. next in a large bowl, i mashed the bananas, added the lemon juice, applesauce and sugar and mixed thoroughly till the ingredients were well combined. then using my biggest mesh strainer, i sifted the 2 cups of flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt into the banana-­apple sauce mixture and stirred in the flour till the ingredients were well combined. to this mixture i then stirred in the olive oil, chopped almonds, the coated cherries and blueberries and zest of lemon, and spooning the batter into the loaf pan i baked the bread for 50­55 minutes, till a knife poked in came out clean.

since eggless loaves taste best after overnight rest, i left it on the kitchen counter to cool completely and then enjoyed the slices for breakfast this morning...

This loaf was featured in..

Yay !!