Banana Streusel Bread (w/werther's caramel candy)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place rack in the center of the oven. Butter (or spray with a non stick veg. spray) the bottom and sides of 9X5X3 inch pan. Set Aside. *If using a dark colored bread pan adjust the time and oven temp (I usually bake at 5 degrees lower than recipe calls for)...dark coated pans have a tendency to cook and brown the edges faster, so watch carefully when using them. I prefer glass or metal.

In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt..along with 2/3 cup of the pecans, and half of the chopped caramel candies. *Regarding chopping Werther's caramels. It is much work to chop them, I used my kitchen scissors and snipped away, worked better than a knife. See picture.

In a medium sized bowl combine the mashed bananas, eggs, melted butter, yogurt, and vanilla. With a rubber spatula, lightly fold the wet ingredients (banana mixture) into the dry ingredients until just combined and the batter is thick and chunky. DO NOT over mix the batter. Over mixing can cause bread to be tough and rubbery. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and sprinkle remaining 1/3 cup of pecans and chopped caramels over the top of the batter. Bake until bread is golden brown and toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 50-60 minutes. Place on a rack to cool slightly, and then remove the bread from the pan. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes one - 9 inch loaf.

* As I noted above I decided to make a 2nd loaf, since I had the Caramel bits from Kraft I wanted to try them instead of chopping up a second bag of Werther's caramels. The werther's bread is very good..delicious, BUT..so is the second loaf I made with the Kraft Caramel bits. If you want to use the caramel bits by kraft then I suggest you use the items I have listed above with the Aesteriks by them.

*Instead of 1 cups of chopped pecans, I used 1/2 cup in the second loaf, and only put it on the top of the bread, NOT in the bread itself.

**Instead of using the Werther's caramel I used 3/4 cup kraft caramel bits, I did NOT cut them, I left them just as they come out of the package. You will add about 1/2 to the batter, and 1/4 cup to the topping along with the pecans.

***Instead of using the coffee yogurt, I used vanilla...and this made a difference with the caramel flavor that comes through with using the kraft bits. The bread itself is lighter in color and you can taste the banana flavor more when using vanilla. See the picture on here of #5.

Those are the only changes I made to the second loaf. Both loaves are delicious, like I said, but, I think I prefer the second loaf more. Use your judgment...

I hope I explained this well enough, please ask questions if not sure about what I have shared. :)