Banana-Orange Piñon Bread

I needed to entertain myself this morning by channeling my anger and frustration over work (or lack thereof) into something positive. So, I challenged to hijack a recipe and turn it into something I could make using ingredients I had on hand. Using the Cranberry-Orange bread recipe from What do I know?, I created a delicious Banana-Orange Piñon Bread finished with a very light drizzle of honey. The result: a perfectly sweet, moist bread where all three flavours are winners -- nutty undertones, a burst of citrus and the natural sweetness of the banana. At about 100 calories per slice and 100% wholemeal, one can't go wrong with this sweet bread.

Banana-Orange Piñon Bread (makes 10 tea time slices)
150 g plain wholemeal flour
65 g raw sugar
3 g baking powder
2 g baking soda
1 g salt
15 g pine nuts, roughly chopped by hand
3 g orange zest
60 ml of freshly squeezed orange juice
85 g banana, mashed
22 g Flora Light brand table spread, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract (imitation is OK)
40 ml soy milk
honey, for drizzling

1. Preheat your oven to 180º C. In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. In a smaller bowl, add the orange zest and table spread and put in the microwave until melted. Stir the mixture and add the mashed banana, soy milk and vanilla until thoroughly blended.
2. Add the banana-orange mixture to the dry ingredients and stir with a flexible spatula so the bits of banana can be mashed into the mixture until smooth. The batter should be fairly thick.
3. Pour the batter in a greased loaf pan using the spatula to ensure that the batter is covering the entire bottom of the pan.
4. Bake in a preheated oven for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the centre of the bread.
5. Allow to cool slightly on a cooling rack and then lightly drizzle with honey vertically, horizontally and diagonally.