Cherry Banana Bread with Cherry Almond Glaze

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Cherry Banana Bread with Cherry Almond Glaze

Cherry Banana Bread with Cherry Almond Glaze - Definitely the best banana bread I've ever made. Rustic, moist, sweet and stuffed full of sweet, delicious Rainier cherries. Oh, and chocolate chips! | The Love Nerds Contributors Behold.

I have made what is quite possible the BEST banana bread ever.

It’s definitely the best banana bread I’ve ever made. It’s rustic, moist, sweet and stuffed full of sweet, delicious Rainier cherries. Oh, and chocolate chips. You can’t have cherries without chocolate. It’s a rule somewhere, I’m sure. But the glaze….oh, the sweet cherry almond glaze will keep you coming back for more and make you lick the plate when you’re done. Seriously. I’ve achieved banana bread Nirvana with this one, folks.

Cherry Banana Bread with Cherry Almond Glaze - Definitely the best banana bread I've ever made. Rustic, moist, sweet and stuffed full of sweet, delicious Rainier cherries. Oh, and chocolate chips! | The Love Nerds Contributors

Hello again, Love Nerd readers! This is Nicole from over at 365(ish) Days of Pinterest back with another tasty recipe for you to try. Usually when I try a new recipe, it’s one that I’ve seen on Pinterest or at least based on something I’ve seen. This time, I was given 4 pounds of Rainier cherries and I had to come up with a way to use them up before they all went bad.

Aren’t they beautiful? This type of cherry is a cross between a Bing and a Van and was developed in the 50’s at Washington State University. They were named after the beautiful Mt. Rainier. They can cost up to $7 a pound because the 1/3 of the crop is lost to birds and weather every year, so when someone offers you a free bag or two, you take them! They taste sweet and mild and I just couldn’t let the last pound I had go to waste.

I decided to bake them into a banana bread and then create a glaze for the top that would tie it all together. I used my good old Better Homes and Garden cookbook (yes, a real ink-on-pages BOOK) as the basis for the banana bread recipe.

Cherry Banana Bread with Cherry Almond Glaze - Definitely the best banana bread I've ever made. Rustic, moist, sweet and stuffed full of sweet, delicious Rainier cherries. Oh, and chocolate chips! | The Love Nerds Contributors

Cherry Banana Bread with Cherry Almond Glaze
Course: Breakfast
Author: Maggie @ The Love Nerds
Ingredients

  • For the bread:
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 egg
  • 2 medium bananas mashed
  • 1 cup Rainier cherries roughly chopped
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup cooking oil
  • 1/2 cup chocolate chips

  • For the glaze:
  • 1 cup Rainier cherries roughly chopped
  • About 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/4 tsp almond extract
Instructions
  1. Grease the bottom and sides of a loaf pan with butter or cooking spray. Sprinkle with a sugar and cinnamon mix if you'd like. (This really adds a nice sweet crunch to the outside of the bread!)
  2. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and a pinch of salt. Make a well in the center of the dry mixture and set aside.
  3. In another bowl, combine the egg, bananas, cherries, sugar and cooking oil. Add the wet mixture all at once to the dry. Stir just until moistened and then gently stir in the chocolate chips. The batter will be lumpy.
  4. Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake at 350° for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Your nose will tell you when it's done. 🙂
  5. Cool on a rack for 10 minutes, remove from the pan and pour the glaze (see below for the glaze instructions) over the warm bread. Technically, you're supposed to continue to let it cool and wait to slice it, but who can really resist warm, sweet banana bread?!?

  6. For the glaze:
  7. Take your chopped cherries and pulse them in the blender until they are mostly liquid and most lumps are gone. Add the almond extract. Add the powdered sugar until the consistency reaches what you'd prefer. I have to apologize here, because I did not keep good track of how much sugar I was using. I just kept adding until I was happy with how it tasted and felt. If you add too much sugar, and it starts to get more like frosting than glaze, you can always add a couple teaspoons of milk.
  8. Slice this up, serve it on a plate (your fingers will be a mess thanks to that delicious glaze) and pour a nice tall glass of milk to go with it. The best part is, you can have this for breakfast without too much guilt, since it IS banana bread! 😉

Cherry Banana Bread with Cherry Almond Glaze - Definitely the best banana bread I've ever made. Rustic, moist, sweet and stuffed full of sweet, delicious Rainier cherries. Oh, and chocolate chips! | The Love Nerds Contributors

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