Meatless Monday: Banana Rye Bread

I hope everyone had a grand weekend! Annabelle, my mom and I went to our town's annual Celtic festival for a bit but it was hot and really crowded and no one seemed to respect our space (HELLO!! Wearing baby! Can you NOT bump into me? Geesh!) so we only stayed for an hour. Sunday my husband, baby and I went to celebrate my friend Kate and her husband Gregs' marriage (congrats again, you two!) and had a fabulous time. And now it's Monday which isn't a bad thing other than that I miss my husband while he's at work.

Today we are going to visit our wonderful neighbors and friends Jojo and Steve. They're the best! We're having dinner with them tonight so I'm not going to supply a vegetarian meal recipe for today's Meatless Monday. Instead I'll share a yummy bread recipe. I'm making this bread to take over with us tonight so I thought I'd share the recipe. I've made it once before and it was awesome. I've had rye flour just waiting in the cabinet for me to use and bananas beginning to brown so this was the perfect choice. I found it on the back of a Fleischman's yeast envelope a long time ago but we buy our yeast in bulk now and store it in the freezer so I haven't seen a Fleischman's envelope in awhile to know if they still print it. This bread isn't like a sweet banana quick bread. It's yeasted and not very sweet. Just perfectly chewy and banana-y and delicious! Here's the recipe:

1 cup warm water
2 envelopes of yeast (or 41/2 t.)
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup melted butter
1 T salt
3 cups rye flour
2 1/-3 cups all-purpose flour (I ended up using about 4 cups and it still turned out perfectly)
2 cups mashed ripe banana

Place 1/2 cup water in a bowl (I use my Kitchen Aid. Use the dough hook.). Stir in yeast until dissolved. Add remaining water, honey, butter, salt, rye flour, and 1/2 cup all-purpose flour. Beat 2 minutes at medium speed, scraping bowl occasionally. Add bananas and 1/2 cup all-purpose flour. Beat 2 minutes at high speed. Stir in enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead on a floured surface until smooth and elastic; 8-10 minutes (here the Kitchen Aid saved the day. Kneading bread by hand with a baby strapped to the front of me would not be the easiest thing to do in my book. Mix everything with the dough hook until smooth and elastic.). It will be sticky (don't worry if the dough doesn't come clean from the sides of the bowl). Place in a greased bowl turning to grease top. Cover. Let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled; about an hour (I usually turn my oven on to 200 degrees, turn it off, and then leave the dough to rise in there).

Punch dough down; turn out onto a floured surface. Divide in half. Shape into smooth, round balls. Place on a well-greased baking sheet. Flatten slightly. Cover. Let rise until doubled; about 45 minutes.

Make several slashes on the tops of the loaves. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. Remove from sheet to cool on wire racks. Try not to eat it all at once!! Topped with cinnamon sugar butter it's sublime!