Have you ever heard of a conserve?  Either had I until I was looking through an old canning book and came across a recipe for an Apple conserve that looked pretty delicious.  
     
      I was at the tail end of canning peaches and still had apples to start on when I saw that recipe and it made me wonder: #1-What is a conserve?  And, #2-How would an Apple Peach Conserve taste?  And so, I set about trying to find out. 

This post contains affiliate links. I will be compensated for purchased made through those links at no additional cost to you. All views expressed are my own. Thank you for your support!
​

     It is still in the hundreds here in Phoenix, but I am so ready for Fall to get here that I actually turned on my oven WAY earlier than I usually do.  I got the idea to make this banana bread with maple syrup instead of refined sugar, plus use up some buttermilk that I had in my fridge.  The resulting quick bread is just perfect for Fall and will be a great loaf to share with friends and family.  

      I just posted about these No-Sew Bread Cozies and promised you this recipe.  So now, if you make the cozies, you can make a new bread recipe to put in them as gifts or simply serve your bread in on your table!
​
    The only sweetener is the maple syrup! Lower glycemic than sugar and with more vitamins and minerals, you can call this bread healthy!  If you love  maple flavor, you will love this bread.   I used a little maple extract to enhance the maple flavor, but you can leave it out or use less or more, the flavor is up to you.   Truth be told, real maple syrup is pricey, so if you have a hankering for this bread and you don't care about using sugar, (or corn syrup actually), Mrs. Butterworth will work just fine in this recipe.  So, you have that option.  Whether you use real maple syrup, or imitation, that maple flavor goes just great with the bananas in this bread. 

       Banana Maple Buttermilk Bread is moist, rises very beautifully and makes a big loaf.  As a matter of fact, I made one 9 x  5 inch loaf, plus 2 mini loaves in this pan, from this recipe.  This is a perfect way to have a loaf for your family and to gift some little ones to friends.  The banana/maple combo with the tang of the buttermilk does make this loaf feel special, so it makes a nice gift. 
​       I baked the mini loaves for about 30 minutes.  So, adjust your time according to what size pan you use. 

     This bread makes a great breakfast, or is delicious as a snack.  I love to smear butter all over it! I think you will like it as well.    
       Here is the recipe!
​

• Quick Sweet Beet Bread
• Dilly Onion Casserole Bread
• Pumpkin Banana Bread
• Pan de Yuca Ecuadorian Cheese Bread​​

​​​

     I've been in the mood for some fabric crafting and sewing.  Plus, I've been doing some bread baking.  I often give loafs of bread away when I make an abundance and that made me think of this post when I showed you how to make a bread cozy to use when gifting bread.  But, I had just had a conversation with a friend about how many people there are out there that do not know how to sew! I thought it might be fun to come up with a no-sew version of the bread cozy.  So, I did and I'm really happy with the way it turned out! 

     A few days ago I shared a recipe with you that used dried apples, not reconstituted.  It was a fabulous recipe for Dried Apple Oatmeal Cookies.  I mentioned in that post that sometimes you reconstitute apples to use them when baking and sometimes you don't have to.  A few people have asked me about how to reconstitute them, so I thought I would share the simple process with you, plus give you a recipe for Apple Crisp using dried apples as well.  (I think I also mentioned that in the cookie post.)