Carda-yum!

I love playing around with different spices in baked goods. Of course people usually put spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger in baking, but what about other aromatic, pungent spices? Like cardamom for instance. I bought loaf pans yesterday in order to experiment with a few quick bread recipes. I knew I wanted something with bananas and the big bag of vegan chocolate chips that were staring at me for days, but wanted to give it a Krystina twist. Everyone knows banana bread, so I wanted to step outside the box just a touch. The end result is a bread that is reminiscent of the banana bread you'd find in any home but with a little something extra that you can't quite place.



Banana cardamom quick bread
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tbsp ground flax
- 1 1/2 tsp cardamom
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp instant espresso or coffee
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips
- 1/2 tbsp turbinado sugar, for garnish

- 3 bananas, 1/2 reserved
- 3 tbsp coconut oil, melted
- 2 tbsp canola oil
- 1/4 cup agave nectar
- 1/4 cup grade A maple syrup

Instructions
- Whisk dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
- In a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients. Mash 2 1/2 bananas and add to wet ingredients. Then chop the remaining half banana and add it to wet ingredients.
- Add wet to dry and mix until thoroughly combined. Pour into a greased loaf pan, sprinkle with turbinado sugar and bake for 50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out of the center clean. Allow to cool before removing from the loaf pan. Enjoy!




I couldn't wait until dessert so I had a small end piece with my lunch. This was heaven! Moist but perfectly cooked, delicately spiced, just the right amount of chocolate - simply heaven. This was actually my first time making quick bread that didn't come from a box, so I'm quite impressed.




Now, to stop myself from eating the whole loaf in one sitting.