Banana Pear Bread

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​BANANA PEAR BREAD

      Last week I found myself in possession of a lone spotty, over-ripe brown banana well past its eating prime. Ah, I lamented, if only I had a second spotty, over-ripe banana I could whip up a loaf of banana bread. 
        However it just so happened that I also had in my fruit bowl two spotty, over-ripe pears. I looked at the banana and the pears and the idea hit me: might there be such a thing as banana pear bread? I decided to find out.
       Now, this was not the first time I'd dabbled in pear pastry. A few months back I also found myself with a surplus of ripening pears,      

...and had decided to try making a pear pie. The result was surprisingly auspicious. (See https://www.ailantha.com/blog/pear-pie​).

       And so I pulled out my banana bread recipe, substituted the two pears for one of the bananas,

...and came up with:

Banana Pear Bread
1 banana
2 pears
1 cup sugar
a dash of cinnamon
1/2 cup shortening, butter, or margarine, softened
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a loaf pan with shortening, butter or margarine (Not oil spray) .
​Peel and thinly slice the banana and pears.

      Mix the banana, pears, sugar, cinnamon, shortening and eggs. Beat about two minutes at medium speed.

     Add the flower, baking powder and  baking soda. Beat into a batter, about two minutes at medium speed.

Pour the batter into the greased pan.

        Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

      Cool for ten minutes, then remove from the pan. Cool completely before cutting.

       The bread looked pretty nice out of the oven, but after it was cooled came the taste test.
​       Tom gave it a rousing thumbs up.

       Theresa pronounced it better than banana bread.

       As for me, I think I'd say this: If you are a true banana bread purist who savors the banana, the whole banana, and nothing but the banana, then this bread may not be your jam.
     But if you're willing to travel off the egg-beaten path flavor-wise, then I'd recommend giving banana pear bead a try if for no other reason than that this loaf came out super, melt-in-your-mouth moist and tasty. Not exactly banana bread-style tasty, but tasty unto itself.

      Not that it hurt to slather on the butter.