Pineapple Banana Bread

I don't know if you've noticed or not but I'm mentally already on vacation.  I changed my background to reflect my vacation state of mind and my food is leaning toward local cuisine.  The Mr and I were discussing how I wanted to find a really good homemade banana bread recipe because it stinks waiting to get to go to the Big Island just to find Auntie Helen's various banana breads.  I picked up some soft tofu on a mental dare and had no idea what I was going to do with it.  I started looking up recipes and came across a banana bread recipe using silken tofu and thought "what the hell."  We had a friend over for breakfast the other day to have loco moco and it was the perfect opportunity to try out the banana bread recipe.

What awaited me was something any home cook revels..."the look."  You know that look.  The eyeballs roll back in the person's head or in this case, our guest did a double take after taking a bite.  He said how good it was and as he was nearing the end of his first piece when I told him tofu was the secret he seemed intrigued and pleasantly surprised.  When he accepted some for the road, I knew I had a hit.  The Mr and I agreed this tasted exactly like Auntie Helen's banana bread which is our all time favorite!  The good thing is as you know, I like to tweak recipes to make them a little healthier than I found them and this easily fits into our calories!

Pineapple Banana Bread awaiting a nice slathering of Hawaiian Sun's Passion Fruit Jelly

Pineapple Banana Bread (adapted from Livestrong.com)

6 oz silken tofu
1 cup sugar (or brown sugar, packed depending on your tastes)
1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract or the scrapings of the inside of one whole vanilla bean)
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup bananas, mashed
1/2 cup fresh pineapple, diced
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp Hain sodium free baking powder (you can find it at Whole Foods or other big box grocery stores)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice or Vietnamese cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, add the first six ingredients (from tofu to pineapple) and mix until combined.

In a larger bowl, add the next 5 ingredients (from flour to cinnamon) and mix them together until combined.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and combine with a rubber spatula.

Spray a loaf pan with some butter flavor cooking spray or the cooking spray of your choice and add the batter to the pan.

Smooth the batter and bake for 60-64 minutes until toothpick comes out completely clean.

Let the bread sit for 5 minutes before putting it on a wire rack to cool completely before slicing into 12 pieces.

Edible aloha.

Nutritional information per slice (1/12 loaf):  Calories 169  Total Fat 1g  Sodium 63mg  Potassium 98mg  Total Carbs 38g  Fiber 3g  Sugars 20g  Protein 4g  Vitamin C 5%  Iron 1%

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