Banana Apple Bread

One of our favourite snacks growing up was when my Mama would bake homemade cookies and loafs. The most important being banana bread. It was definitely one of the first recipes I learned and mastered as a baker. Nowadays, I don't make it too much because Jesse's not a big fan and I certainly don't want to eat a whole loaf to myself. Of course, I'd love to and could easily, but I just shouldn't. 
This time around I decided to mess with the recipe a bit and add a few things. We had a few apples my Dad had given to us that needed to be used up. Since I'm already in Autumn overdrive I was excited for apples because they are a great match for fall spices such as nutmeg and cloves. My favourite! 
This banana apple bread recipe is fantastic and easy, anybody can do it. And, if you'd like to omit the apples and spices I've split up the recipe below for just plain banana bread. 

Banana Apple Bread
1/2 cup butter 3/4 cup brown sugar 2 well beaten eggs 1 cup mashed bananas (2-3 bananas) 1 tsp vanilla 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour 2 tsp baking soda 4 tbsp sour milk (3 tbsp milk + 1 tbsp vinegar) 2 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt
3 red apples 3 tsp ground cinnamon 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg 1/4 tsp ground cloves

♥ Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Grease two loaf pans or muffin tins with butter or non stick spray. In your stand up mixer or a large bowl, cream butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Add beaten eggs and vanilla and stir until just incorporated. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, salt and baking powder. Mix together the sour milk and baking soda with mashed bananas and set aside. 
♥ For apple bread: Peel, core and dice two of the apples. You can choose any red apples you'd like, for this I used Galas because that's just what we had. Keep the third apple for the end. Mix 2 tsp of the cinnamon, and all of the nutmeg and cloves into your flour mixture.

♥ Add dry ingredients (flour) and wet ingredients (bananas) alternately to creamed butter mixture, beginning and ending with your dry ingredients. With a spatula, fold in diced apples until well incorporated. 
♥ Split mixture in half into your two loaf pans, or pour into muffin tins. Peel the third apple and slice into 6-7 slices. Cut the core out of the center and toss the apple rounds onto your loaf. You could do this with more apples if you're doing muffins, so each one has an apple round on top. Or, you can use a small cookie or fondant cutter like I did to cut shapes! Toss your apple rounds or shapes in the remaining cinnamon and a bit of lemon juice if you have it (keeps the apples from oxidizing). Place on top of the batter.
♥ Bake muffins for about 20-30 minutes and loaves for about 35 depending on your oven. To check, insert a tooth pick in the center of the loaf or muffin and if it comes out clean, it's done. If it comes out with crumbs or sticky dough, keep the loaf in for another 5-7 minutes. Bread should be nice and golden brown around the edges when it's done! Best served warm with butter or jam. Store in air tight container for up to a week.
Yum!