I had three very ripe bananas to use up so I was looking around for a banana bread recipe that did not call for a lot of sugar or butter. I found an amazing looking recipe on King Arthur Flour's website for Banana Pina Colada Muffins (http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/banana-pia-colada-muffins-recipe). These muffins were beautiful; banana batter studded with dried pineapple chunks, topped off with a delightful shredded coconut crown. My only problem was I didn't have any butter so I kept searching until I found a recipe for Island Banana Bread on Vegetarian Times website (http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/9044?section=). This one is vegan but I decided to alter it to suit my tastes. The following recipe is a fusion of the two differen recipes into my own very own Island Banana Bread:

Ingredients

2 c. White Whole Wheat Flour

1/4 c. Soy Flour

2 tbsp. Dried Buttermilk Powder

1 tsp. Baking Powder

1 tsp. Baking Soda

1/2 tsp. Sea Salt

1/4 tsp. Nutmeg

1 c. Diced Dried Pineapple (or other dried fruit: dates, apricots, etc.)

1/2 c. Raisin Puree (or prune puree)

1 1/2 c. Mashed Ripe Bananas

1/2 c. Packed Brown Sugar

2 Eggs

1 tsp. Rum

3/4 c. Orange Juice

1/3 c. Shredded Coconut

Greetings -

Best o' the season to y'all.

Is there a significant difference between using freshly ground cinnamon or nutmeg, as opposed to the pre-ground variety?

And if fresh is that much better, what do you typically use to grind them?

Cheers,

- Richard

I baked my very old recipe for pumpkin bread this weekend. I love this very spicy recipe and like to add more cinnamon than called for as I always do with that spice. It is a very moist pumpkin bread and also very fragrant. You can see how easy it is to make as well. You basically measure and dump everything together and mix.