Pear Banana Loaf

I tried really hard to find a pear loaf recipe in my cookbook collection. Nada — unless I was going to substitute apples with pears, which could work. At first, I was like, pear fritters! Then, I decided I wasn’t going to start an elaborate doughnut project at 8 PM on a weeknight! Even taking butter out to come to room temperature was work… Don’t even try to cream the butter cold. I’ve done that out of impatience; it gives a dry texture, yuck. To add to that prior impatient disaster, there was egg shells in the cake. Mm, extra calcium, anyone? (Sorry, dear husband. Thanks for testing my baking experiments where I try breaking the rules!)

Jokes aside, you can easily substitute butter for vegetable oil when time isn’t on your side.

So, I resorted to marrying and adapting two different recipes! Thanks to a Key Ingredient contribution titled “Mom’s banana pear bread” and Some More Please’s recipe.

Then, I ran out of cinnamon. (How could I?! I had cinnamon sugar — again, I could have easily calculated the proportions using elementary math, then deduct how much granulated sugar to add. Sheer laziness! Tsk, tsk.)

350°F Preheated oven

Ingredients

Sift the following dry ingredients:
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp baking POWDER
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup brown sugar

Mix with a spatula. Break the brown sugar further into lumps if needed.

Wet mixture:
1 cup pear, peeled and cored, mashed with a potato masher (roughly 2 normal sized pears or 4 tiny ones)
1 cup banana, mashed (Roughly 2 bananas)
2 eggs, lightly whisked, as suggested by SomeMorePlease
1 to 2 tbsp of maple syrup (for the wet mixture)
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup vegetable oil

1. Grease two loaf pans.

2. 

   First bowl: mash the pears with a potato masher. Then, mash bananas. Continue preparing the wet mixture by adding eggs, maple syrup  This step can all be done using a hand-whisk.
   

3. Second (bigger) bowl: Sift dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices) together. Then, add brown sugar and salt.

4. 

   Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Fold gently (using a spatula). Don’t over-mix.

5. Pour about 2/3 of each loaf pan. Knock the bottoms of each pan to break any air bubbles. (I usually do that with cupcakes. So, why not?)
6. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until the cake tester comes out clean.

Special thanks to my coworker for the pears from his backyard.

Taste notes: You could definitely taste the pears. Serve with tea or coffee and enjoy! (I found it to be a bit sweet with the maple syrup, but everyone else liked it. It definitely contributed to the moist texture.)