Maple Pecan Banana Bread

I have made many loaves of banana bread over the years, but I have to say, this is one of the prettiest loaves I've ever baked, plus the ingredients make it sound awesome. I have 7 variations of banana bread on my blog (look under the link for Quick Breads) and that doesn't even count the versions of banana muffins that I have made using a quick bread recipe. This one, by far, has the most appealing name because I happen to love maple and pecan together, and the flavor I conjure when I think of this bread is a banana pecan pancake drenched in maple syrup -- yum!

Therefore I was highly disappointed when I tasted the bread after it had cooled down and realized that the maple flavor just wasn't enough for me -- despite 1/2 cup of maple syrup and 1/2 tsp maple extract in the loaf. Next time I think I will use pure maple extract instead of the fake stuff I tried to use today, and I will likely up it some -- maybe even doubling it, because I love maple. I will also toast the pecans before adding them to the loaf just to make sure that awesome pecan flavor comes through.

This is certainly not a bad loaf of bread -- but the name promised so much more...

I found the recipe here. I did make one obvious change substituting pecans for walnuts. The other thing about the recipe is it wants the bread baked for 50 minutes. I realized just how little batter was in my 9x5 pan, and decided to check my bread after 30 minutes which was a very wise choice because it was perfect after 30.




Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 egg
2 ripe bananas
1/2 teaspoon maple extract
3 tablespoons milk
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
3 tablespoons white sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, mix the melted butter and maple syrup. Beat in the egg and bananas, leaving a few small chunks. Stir in the maple extract and milk.
In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, and baking powder, and stir into the banana mixture just until moistened. Transfer to the prepared loaf pan. Mix the nuts and sugar, and sprinkle evenly over the batter.

Bake 30 minutes in the preheated oven.