The cereal aisle used to be a magical place for me.
All that sugar. My diet practically consisted of it.
But then I realized I was not an elf and I couldn’t stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns and syrup.
So I said farewell to my over-sugarized cereal.
And said hello to healthy-ish green-er living.
Don’t worry I got over it.
So I bought a box of All-Bran cereal because it looked really good and I am officially an old lady and I love poopin’.
Unfortunately I wasn’t jiving it as much as I thought I would (not pooping, the cereal) so now I’ve been throwing it into random baking creations. Mind you, the cereal tastes fine I just thought the pieces were going to be bigger and it threw off the texture I had envisioned in my brain.
Feel free to use Raisin Bran or whatever Bran cereal you have on hand for this. Or if you’re super cool and you have plain wheat bran, use that. Just increase the sugar amount by a little bit because the cereals contain sugars.
Recipe: (baking time: 1 hour)
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 cup bran cereal*
1/2 cup applesauce (unsweetened)
3 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp white sugar
1 egg
2 bananas (mashed)
1 cup peaches (2, chopped- reserve 1/2 of 1 for topping)
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
*you can use plain wheat bran if you happen to have that, you may want to increase the sugar amount though
Preheat oven: 350°
Add your cereal or bran to a mixing bowl.
Sift your flours, baking powder/soda, salt into the bowl.
Mix.
Chop your peaches. Save half of one for your topping.
Mash your bananas. I use a whisk, I find the bread turns out better if you turn your bananas into a sludge rather than leaving chunks.
Add your peaches and cinnamon and mash those together slightly.
Whisk together your applesauce, vanilla, and brown sugar (save your white sugar for later). Then add your egg.
Whisk until just mixed.
Add your flour mixture and then your banana mixture in chunks, ending with your banana.
Don’t mix completely between each addition, there’s no need.
End result. This batter is a touch thicker than my other banana breads because of the bran. If yours is too thick add a tbsp or two of milk or juice.
Pour into greased bread pan and even out.
Decorate with slices and sprinkle with remaining 1 tbsp of white sugar. Sprinkling with the sugar on the top gives you that nice crust without having to add as much sugar throughout the whole batter.
If you’ve been following my blog from the beginning you’ll have noticed I started with adding 3/4 cup of sugar to my banana breads and now I’m down to 1/4 cup and they still taste sugary to me. If you lower your consumption of it, your body stops craving it and it tastes stronger in smaller quantities.
Bake in a 350° for 1 hour or until tester comes out clean. Allow to cool 10 minutes before pulling out of pan.
Enjoy!
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