Happy National Banana Bread Day!

Earlier this week, I found out that this Saturday would be National Banana Bread Day. You know I can't resist any sort of reason to bake, and conveniently, I had three bananas ripe and ready to be made into bread!

I've been working on making my baked good healthier by using better fats, whole wheat flour, and honey rather than sugar. I sneaked a little granulated sugar into this, but only for the topping and cinnamon swirl!

So here you go! My very best recipe for banana bread... Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread! This is adapted from my very favourite recipe blog, Lovin' From the Oven. Just about everything I have tried from there has been amazing.

Ingredients

• 3 ripe bananas
• 1/3 cup melted butter (salted or unsalted)
• 1/3 cup honey (raw, unfiltered, and local if you can find it!)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla (or as much as you feel like pouring in)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• dash of salt (if you used unsalted butter)
• 1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tbsp cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9x5 loaf pan, mini loaf pan, or muffin pan. I use Pam spray with flour in it already.
2. Mash up the bananas in a bowl. Add in the melted butter, honey, egg, and vanilla and stir to combine. Sprinkle baking soda and salt (if using) on top of banana mixture. Gently stir in flour until it is just incorporated.
3. In a separate small bowl, mix together granulated sugar and cinnamon. (Or use premade cinnamon sugar mix! I had some leftover from another recipe.)
4. Add half of the batter to your pan, then put about 3/4 of the cinnamon sugar mixture on top. Then add the rest of the batter and spread it out. Sprinkle the rest of the cinnamon sugar on the top of the loaf. Don't put too much on top, or it will not cook in, it will just fall off.
5. Bake for 50-60 minutes for a 9x5 loaf pan. For the mini loaf pan or muffin pan, bake about 25-30 minutes, or until when you press the top with your finger, it springs back. Or when a toothpick or knife comes out clean.

Enjoy!