Roasted Banana Yeast Bread

I have to give the credit for this idea to Sonya, of Home Cooking With Sonya, who has the most wonderful ways with banana breads and banana muffins and recently blogged about a beautiful loaf of Yeasted Banana Sandwich Bread. I had just read Sonya's post about Roasted Banana Ice Cream and was planning to roast my almost-too-ripe bananas for that recipe when I saw her yeasted banana bread post, and an idea was born - to put roasted bananas in the banana yeast bread!

Sonya credits King Arthur Flour with the recipe, and do visit both her blog as well as King Arthur's website to see not only photos of their glorious loaves but also the original recipe. My recipe below reflects my changes, which were to roast the bananas (as Sonya does for her ice cream) and to include ingredients such as flax seed, coconut oil, and whole oats.

I just ate a piece fresh from the oven, and it is is moist, not too sweet, and has an almost savory note from the roasted bananas - so good. I can't wait to have it toasted in the morning!

Roasted Banana Yeast Bread
adapted from the blog of Home Cooking with Sonya, originally from King Arthur Flour

2 medium very ripe bananas
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1-1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, diced
3-1/4 cups unbleached flour
1/4 cup milled flax seed
1/4 cup whole oats
1 scant tablespoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon organic virgin coconut oil
1 cup lukewarm 1 percent milk

Slice bananas into 1/2-inch slices and toss with brown sugar and diced butter in 2-quart baking dish. Bake 30 minutes, stirring once during baking, until bananas are browned and cooked through. Cool to lukewarm.

Whisk together flour, flax seed, oats, yeast, and salt; set aside.

Combine honey, oil and milk and mix on low speed; add cooled banana mixture and mix on medium until bananas are well blended. Slowly add in flour mixture and combine to form a shaggy dough. Knead with a dough hook for 5 minutes. Place dough into lightly greased bowl; cover and let rise one hour.

Light grease an 8 X 4 inch loaf pan; place a narrow piece of parchment paper in bottom of pan for ease of removal. Transfer dough to lightly floured surface, shape into a tightly rolled log, and place into loaf pan. (Please see King Arthur's website for a wonderful tutorial about this.) Cover with lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow dough to rise 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until full and rounded.

Preheat oven to 350. Bake 35-40 minutes or until nicely browned. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then remove to wire rack.