Go Bananas!

I’ve always loved bananas, even though for years all those crazy nutrition people gave them a bad rap for being starchy.  News flash: ALL FRUITS CONTAIN CARBS. Obviously, if you eat 7 bananas a day, you might get a wee bit pudgy.  But let’s be honest – eating bananas is way better than eating, say, a bacon egg and cheese sandwich. I prefer my bananas on the less ripe side, with the peels still a light yellow and no black spots.  Sometimes I get a little overenthusiastic in my banana buying and I can’t eat them quickly enough, so the dreaded black spots appear.  I now have the perfect solution – a quick, easy, and delicious banana bread that specifically calls for the mushy, overripe bananas you never want to eat plain.  This recipe was given to Eric by a customer who used to own a bakery.  When she sold it, she also sold the rights to all of her recipes except for this one. After she heard about this blog, she graciously offered to share this recipe, and I’m very glad she did – let’s all give a big shout-out of thanks to Mary!

Banana Bread

What You’ll Need

• 3 overripe bananas, well mashed (*If using frozen bananas, use 4 [see note])
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 cups flour
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda

*Note: If you often have extra ripe/overripe bananas laying around, stick them in the freezer until you’re ready to use them. The skins will get very dark brown, but they’re perfect for smoothies or banana bread.  When you take them out of the freezer, let them thaw on the counter for an hour. After you peel them, the banana will slide out of the skin and straight into the bowl!

These offenders were purposely left to reach a mushy state for about 4 or 5 days past their prime. It got to a point where I was a)terrified of getting fruit flies (when you’ve worked in academic science labs your whole life and have experienced Drosophila fruit fly clouds migrating through the vents into your lab from another lab, you’ll understand my hatred. THEY NEVER DIE.) and b) impatient to eat some damn banana bread.

I popped them out of the peels, removed all the stringy bits, and mashed them into a thick but uniform pulp with a fork.

Preheat your oven to 350°F.  While it’s getting toasty, beat the eggs in a small bowl, then add them to the bananas and mix well. Add all of the dry ingredients and mix until you have a smooth batter.  Even though I have a Kitchenaid mixer, I for some reason have made this by hand both times I’ve made it.  It’s a good workout for your upper arms, and the final product doesn’t seem to be affected by my wimpy biceps.

Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan and bake for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  For some reason, even though we have established that my oven resides on the island of Sucktastica, the edges of my bread were almost overdone after 1 hour.  I tried 57 minutes the second time I made this and it was perfect.

This bread is absolutely delicious – it’s moist, chewy, and has that fabulous banana flavor that simply cannot be replicated by the fake flavoring crap used in most “banana” foods.  The original recipe suggests adding ½ cup of dark chocolate chips or chopped nuts, both of which would be great additions.  I actually like the plain version of this so much I’m hesitant to mess with it. Plus, I’ve been taking a piece to eat in the car on the way to work as my breakfast in the morning, so it feels a lot less decadent when it doesn’t contain chocolate.  I’m going to try it with the chocolate chips as a healthy alternative to dessert.  What can I say…I’m bananas for this bread!