Banana Carrot Walnut Bread with Pineapple Cream Cheese

Our newspaper, The Roanoke Times, recently printed three different banana bread recipes reprinted from Maida Heatter's Cakes. I decided to take one and play with it a little. Here is what I came up with.

1 cup raisins or Craisins
1 cup grated carrots
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup oatmeal ( I added this for fun and because I like oatmeal and to increase the healthy aspect)
1 TBL unsweetened cocoa ( This makes it dark, but it is hard to taste the chocolate)
1 tsp each baking soda and cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup brown sugar (I used Splenda brown sugar baking mix)
3/4 cup vegetable oil ( I used 1/2 cup, and added more banana for moistness)
2 large bananas (1 cup)
1 cup chopped walnuts (my addition...gotta have the nuts!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a loaf pan with Pam.

In a medium bowl mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
Using my Kitchenaid mixer, I beat the eggs to mix. Beat in the sugar and oil. Coarsely chop bananas and add to the egg mixture along with Craisins and carrots. On low speed, add the dry mixture 1 cup at a time, scrapping the bowl as needed. Add the chopped walnuts. Turn mixture into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes and then turn it onto a cooling rack.




When completely cool, slice and spread with pineapple cream cheese. Our store was out, so I made some with whipped cream cheese and drained crushed pineapple.