Recipe: Simple & Quick Banana Nut Bread

When I was little, I loved anything with bananas in it. Banana baby food was my favorite as a tiny child and my love affair with the fruit grew and grew – along with a growing suspicion that eating delicious things probably shouldn’t hurt. As I got older, my mouth became more and more uncomfortable with the presence of banana (despite my taste bud’s adoration of the flavor), until eventually even eating a bite of it could fill my mouth with what felt like tiny papercuts coating my tongue and throat.

I discovered after explaining my banana eating experiences to a doctor that I was mildly allergic to the fruit, but not enough so to actually dissuade me from eating it. I’m a glutton for punishment, okay? Through careful observation and analysis (read: lots of bananas and pain), I realized that they only really hurt me when they were past a certain stage of ripeness.

Fortunately for me, this was pretty simple to avoid – I avoid soft bananas with brown spots.

Unfortunately for me, soft bananas with brown spots are IDEAL for banana-baked-goods and as such, I can only enjoy one of my favorite flavors when baked in extreme moderation. C’est la vie, amirite?

This is my favorite recipe for Banana Nut Bread when the craving arises and it’s been long enough for me to forget how uncomfortable a mouthful of paper cuts is. Luckily for most of the people reading this, you’re probably not allergic to ripened bananas – yay! 😀

3 super ripe bananas (soft with lots of brown spots), peeled and mashed

1/3 cup of uncooked, rolled oats (set some aside to sprinkle on top if you want)

3/4 cup of chopped walnuts (divided into 1/2 c & 1/4 c)

1 stick of unsalted butter, room temperature

2 eggs, large

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup light brown sugar

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Pre-heat the oven to 350 F degrees & spray your bread baking pan with spray (or rub with butter).
In a medium bowl using a mixer or a whisk, cream the butter and the sugars together until light and airy. Mix in the vanilla and each egg, one by one, followed by the mashed banana. Be careful not to overmix!
In a separate bowl, combine your dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, oats, salts). Add the dry ingredients to your banana mixture until fully blended, and fold in 1/2 c of the walnuts.
Pour the banana bread batter into your pan and top with your remaining oats and walnuts. Bake in the middle of a center rack for 50 minutes – 1 hour (the inside will be set and the top will be moist but have signed of beginning to crack).
Remove the pan and allow the bread to cool for a few minutes before flipping the pan over and removing the bread to cool completely. I prefer to eat banana bread cold, so I usually wrap it up and stick it in the refrigerator for a few hours!
Enjoy! 🙂