Chai Tea Banana Bread with Maple Glaze

Chai Tea Banana Bread

One of the things that I love about living in Florida is that we can actually grow all sorts of fruits on trees right in our backyard.  We have neighbors with mango trees, avocado trees, lime trees and orange trees. However, the one fruit that was missing from our neighborhood bounty was bananas. So, a few years ago we took the kids to a local nursery and picked one out, then came home and planted it.  That little tree that we nurtured (okay my husband nurtured and the rest of us kind of forgot about it) has grown enormously and produced its first bananas just about a month ago.  Seriously, there were SO many, even after distributing a share to all our neighbors we still had more than we could ever eat. So, I began to think of a few recipes that I could make with them.

As fall was quickly approaching, and being a HUGE chai tea fan, I thought it might be interesting to try a new twist on an old favorite – banana bread.

Start by pre-heating the oven to 350 and then here’s what you will need for this recipe:

4 ripe bananas

2 packets of chai tea

3/4 cups white all purpose flour

3/4 cups whole wheat flour

(you can use all white or all wheat based on your personal preferences)

1/2 cup coconut oil

1/4 cup honey

1 tsp vanilla

1 cups brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

Peel and mash up the bananas with a fork and then add the coconut oil, honey, vanilla, egg and brown sugar. Use a handheld mixer on medium to blend the ingredients together. Next add the baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and 3/4 cup wheat flour, using the mixer on low blend until smooth and then add the white flour and repeat.

The last step is adding the tea. You will want to cut open two tea bags and then add the tea to the mixture.

I realize this may sound odd to some people, but I promise you it works well and there is nothing gritty about the final product at all.

Pour the mixture into a loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees fro 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean and the top is browned.

Now, because I also have a pretty terrible sweet tooth, I thought this recipe would be even better with a Maple Glaze on top. If you’d like to add the glaze (totally up to you), here’s what you will need:

2 Tbsp maple syrup

2 Tbsp Milk

1 cup  powdered sugar

I always find working with powdered sugar can be a bit tricky. So, you may need to add an extra tsp of milk if it is too thick or a little more powdered sugar if it is too watery.

Once the bread has finished cooking allow it to cool completely and then drizzle the glaze over it in a back and forth pattern.  Slice and serve warm with a cup of chai tea or whatever else suits your fancy.  You can store the bread with the glaze in an airtight container for a couple of days and it holds up pretty well. However, if you want it to last longer, then you may not want to glaze the entire loaf. If you omit the glaze you can also freeze any leftover bread in slices and then just warm in the microwave for about 30 seconds as great snack.