Chai Spice Banana Bread

My Chai Spice Tea Cake is one of my most popular recipes, and one of these days I'd like to go back to the recipe and remake it into a full fancy cake. I was originally going to do that today, but I had two very large and very ripe bananas that needed to be used. Luckily, I had found my loaf pan (it's always in the last box you look in...), so I was finally able to make a full-sized loaf of something!

This recipe makes a most excellent breakfast bread. I made my loaf without the optional brown sugar and I thought the delicately-sweetened bread was best. However, if you're looking for a more standard level of sweetness, I would go ahead and add the brown sugar. For the tea I use Stash brand Chai Spice Black Tea. It's currently my favorite, but you can use what ever black tea you have. Since the bread has the actually chai spices, I'm mostly looking for a certain depth of flavor that is imparted by the tea. This is a very good banana bread recipe, one of my favorites (although I still have yet to make a chocolate-banana bread...)!

Chai Spice Banana Bread:
Dry Mix:
1 1/2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
1 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp. cardamom
1/8 tsp. cloves
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. sea salt

Wet Mix:
2-3 very ripe bananas, mashed
1/3 c. agave nectar or maple syrup
1/3 c. no-sugar-added applesauce
1/4 c. packed brown sugar, optional
1/3 c. coconut oil, liquefied
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 c. lite coconut milk
3 chai spice black tea bags

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients in the dry mix. Whisk to combine.

3. In a small saucepan, heat the coconut milk to a boil. Add the tea bags, turn off the heat, and allow to steep for five minutes.

4. In a medium bowl, combine the mashed bananas, agave, applesauce, brown sugar, vanilla and almond extract, and stir well. Give the tea bags a squeeze after their steeping time is up and mix it with the wet mix. Mix well.

5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, then add the coconut oil to the bowl with all the ingredients. Mix well with a wooden spoon.

6. Pour the batter into a standard loaf pan sprayed with nonstick and bake at 350F for 50 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Best when served warm with a little vegan butter spread on top!