Cranberry Banana Bread

I love baking breads. As a kid, I use to come home from school and my mom had a loaf of bread ready for my sisters and I to eat. I guess you could say this was the beginning of my love of bread. During this last year, I have been experimenting more with bread. I have scoured through cookbooks to find recipes that I think are worth trying. I recently found this Cranberry Banana Bread recipe that I felt was worthy of trying in Mary Gubser's Quick Breads Soups and Stews 196.


Ingredients:
4 cups sifted all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup butter or margarine
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
2 cups ripe banana (about 4), mashed
2 cups coarsely chopped fresh cranberries
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

1) Preheat oven to 350. Grease 2 bread loaf pans (9x5x3)
2) Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a bowl. Set aside
3) In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and creamy with an electric mixer.
4) Add the eggs one at a time, eating well after each addition.
5) Stir in the bananas, then slowly add the dry ingredients, beating constantly untl well moistened.
6) Fold in the cranberries and nuts
7) Transfer the batter to the two prepared pans until each pan is about 2/3rds full
8) Bake each loaf 50-55 minutes.
Yield: 2 loaves of delicious bread

Overall, I gave this recipe 4.5 out of 5 stars. The bread was moist and delicious. The recipe was easy to make and fairly fast. The only change I made during the recipe was the cranberry selection. I choose to used dried cranberries instead of the fresh cranberries in the recipe due to the fact that cranberries are not in season. I will definitely make this recipe again.