Banana Split Bread

My first "real" job aside from babysitting was as a drink/ice cream girl at Sonic the summer I turned 14. One of the favorite items on the menu for customers during the sweltering Texas summers was a banana split.

This quick bread is a twist on those flavors strongly reminiscent of many childhood afternoons. It's delicious warm out of the oven, but would be equally good at room temperature. I imagine the tastes would be greatly enhanced with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream on the side. If there was a way for me to buy Bluebell ice cream up here - sigh... that would be dangerous.



Ingredients

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup crema Mexicana or sour cream (you can use a low-fat version if you want)

1/4 cup fat-free milk
1 teaspoon Mexican vanilla. (I always use Mexican vanilla in baking. Trust me, once you've used it, you won't ever use artificial vanilla flavor willingly again)

2/3 cup mashed red bananas (about 3 red bananas. Look for them in the produce section, and pick ones that have reddish/purple skin. They have slightly pink flesh and almost a raspberry laced flavor). You can use the "normal" Cavendish banana, but if you do, you'll only need about 2-3 medium bananas, and the flavor will be a little less intense.

8 maraschino cherries, drained and chopped
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup miniature semisweet chocolate pieces
1/2 cup sliced fresh ripe strawberries
Nonstick cooking spray or butter - to grease inside of pan

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly coat the bottom and sides of a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray; set aside.
In a large bowl, stir together all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. Make a well in center of flour mixture; set aside.
In a medium bowl, combine crema, milk, and egg. Stir in mashed banana and vanilla.
Add crema mixture all at once to flour mixture; stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy). Fold in chopped cherries, pecans, strawberries and chocolate chips.
Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove bread from pan. Cool completely on wire rack. Makes 16 slices.