The Best Banana Bread Ever

Saturday, November 26, 2016

banana-bread

 

I know, I know. We all have grandma’s best ever this or that, the tried and true family favorite, but this is seriously the best banana bread you’ll ever taste.

 

And, it came about by shear accident. Let me explain.

 

It was years ago. DD was still in grade school and bananas were a staple in our house. We used them in lunches, on oatmeal, dipped in chocolate as a sweet treat. Every week I would buy them and every week they were eaten in some fashion or another.

 

Then, they fell out of favor as many foods do when you eat them insesately for weeks or months. They are no longer special, just part of the daily grind that is putting together meals or packing school lunches.

 

When bananas were too soft for fresh eating I would make banana pancakes on the weekend to use them up, so they didn’t go to waste. Single moms can get very creative when they live on a budget and don’t want to waste food.

 

But, this day was different. We had tired of banana pancakes, and not being a fan of banana cream pie I had to come up with another way to use the now spotted yellow and brown skinned tropical fruit. When no ideas came to mind I threw the now very ripe bananas in the freezer until I could come up with a plan.

 

Then it happened. That ah ha moment when you find what you’re looking for without really even looking. I was flipping through a cookbook, looking for something completely different, and there it was, bold as day…a banana bread recipe for a holiday breakfast. I read over the recipe and mentally checked off the ingredients one at a time (it’s so nice having a well-stocked pantry). The recipe called for slightly softened fresh bananas, but I only had the one’s I had thrown in the freezer a few weeks earlier.

 

What the heck, I’ll give it a try.

 

I thawed the banana’s, reread the recipe, making a few adjustments, and the end result was a soft, moist, dark-colored nutty bread with the most intense banana flavor I had ever tasted.

 

It was, in fact, the best banana bread I had ever tasted.

 

So what makes this banana bread so different?

 

My gastronomically uneducated opinion is…the sticky, sweet, intensely flavored syrup that is given off when the bananas defrost; that and the combination of brown sugar, applesauce instead of oil and the addition of pecans rather than walnuts.

 

This recipe has become a fall favorite and is great toasted and slathered with butter, or even made into grilled French toast.

 

 

Frozen Banana Bread

 

INGREDIENTS:

½ cup butter, room temperature

2 eggs

1 cup brown sugar

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup mashed very ripe bananas

½ cup applesauce

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ cup chopped pecans

 

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream together butter, sugar, and eggs.

Sift dry ingredients and combine with the butter mixture. Blend well.

Add the bananas, applesauce, and vanilla; stir well, but don’t overwork the mixture.

Stir in the nuts and pour into a well-buttered 9x5x3-inch loaf.

Bake one hour, or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Turn out onto a rack to cool. Makes: 1 large loaf.

 

TIPS:  This is one of those full proof recipes. It’s had to screw it up, so be a little adventurous with it. I have used different kinds of applesauce from plain to chunky homemade to cinnamon. If you do try it with cinnamon applesauce, reduce the cinnamon in the recipe by half.

You can also use this recipe as a base for other quick breads like apple spice, apple butter, pumpkin or pumpkin butter.



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