Banana Cranberries and Pistachio Nut Bread with Lemon Cream Cheese Glaze

This week dessert theme will be a loaf/bread week. I still have dried cranberries on my fridge and would like to do something with it, so I browse some of recipes using cranberries. I used to had this cranberries bread at Starbucks which I really love, so I might gonna make similar thing like that.

Call me lazy, but a simple recipe always the one that attract me first he he. After those browsing I saw this one from Foodgawker that looks really nice: Cranberry Banana Nut Bread (here's the real recipe from). I made a modification with adding a glaze on top of the bread (simply because I saw other recipe that has the glaze then I combine it).



INGREDIENTS
For the Banana Cranberries Bread:

• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2-3 mashed over-ripe bananas > If your banana aren't ripe enough simply cut them in half and just cook them on a non stick pan for awhile (no need oil or anything) until it's softer and easy to mashed them.
• 1 cup coarsely chopped fresh or frozen cranberries > I'm using dried packed cranberries
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped Pistachio Nuts (or whatever nuts you desire)
• 1 tsp. Lemon zest

 Dried Cranberries

 For the Lemon Cream Cheese Glaze:

• 1 cup (120g) confectioners' sugar
• 2-3 Tbs Cream Cheese (room temperature)
• 1-2 Tablespoons lemon juice or from 1 squeezed Lemon

METHODE
For the Banana Cranberries Bread:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F and grease a 21.6 x 11.4 x 6.35 cm loaf tin (I'm using Wilton tin)
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the butter, sugar, eggs, and banana. Then add lemon zest.
3. Blend the dry ingredients together and stir them in just to moisten (do not over mix).  Gently mix in the cranberries and pistachio.
4. Bake for an hour until a toothpick comes out clean when poked into the middle.  Let it cool for about 10 minutes before removing from the pan and cooling on a rack.

Fresh Bread from the oven

For the Glaze:
In a small bowl, whisk the confectioners' sugar and lemon juice together. Add Cream cheese one at a time and more lemon juice depending how thick you want the glaze. When finished, drizzle over cooled bread.

Lemon Cream Cheese Glaze

 
NOTE: Unglazed bread stays fresh covered tightly at room temperature for 5 days or in the refrigerator for 6-7 days. Glazed bread must be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. 





The results, this is by far the best combination taste of loaf/bread that I've ever made. The texture is full of fiber, it smells heavenly because of the banana, cinnamon and freshness from Lemon zest. And the combination between sweetness and sour because of the Lemon Cream Cheese Glaze... It's so hard not to eat only one slice. Wanna bet? :D