One Banana Banana Bread (made with two bananas)

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I had a problem. My problem? These.

They were getting more disgusting daily, they needed to be transformed into something delicious and lovingly baked, but they were small, smaller than they look in this photo, so my options were limited. And then I remembered the recipe I’d seen a while back for One Banana Banana Bread. Yes! Since Pinterest finally allows you to search your own pins, it was easy enough to find the recipe, and reassure myself that all was going to go well in bananaland.

The recipe looked healthy enough, so instead of worrying about reducing the quarter cup of butter, I just melted it, as instructed.

While it cooled, I pulled the dry ingredients together. Instead of a cup of all purpose flour, I used 2/3 of a cup of whole wheat white and 1/3 of a cup of toasted wheat germ. I used coconut palm sugar instead of white, added baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt, and then threw in two teaspoons of cinnamon and a half a teaspoon of nutmeg. I like my spices.

I whisked. I like my spices, and I like whisking.

I poured in the melted butter, now cooled to room temperature.

I added buttermilk and and stirred. Once it was well mixed, I added a lightly beaten egg, and stirred again.

Finally it was time to mash the bananas. I should have done that ahead of time, but I forgot. I know the whole idea of this recipe was the “one banana”-ness of it, but mine were small, and I figured that the banana she was talking about was a lot bigger than my bananas. I didn’t have banana envy, just banana needs.

I added the bananas and vanilla to the batter.

I stirred it all together, stopping as soon as I felt things were mixed enough, and glopped it all into a loaf pan.

I turned my attention to what would turn out to be some ill-fated topping. I mixed together a little flour, butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.

As you can see, the texture was neither sprinklable nor spreadable, so I ended up plopping little bits of it onto the batter with my fingers and leaving it at that.

It took a long time to bake, a lot longer than the recipe said it would. I blame the extra banana.

I let it sit in the pan for another ten minutes, then turned it out onto the rack.

The topping didn’t really do much, but the bread? Wonderful! I got a perfect crumb, soft and moist in perfect balance. The flavor was just as well balanced, with a strong banana taste and just the right hints of spice. I can’t believe this is only a 3 P+ recipe, because it tastes rich and full of sweet buttery goodness. Woohoo! A win all around.

ONE BANANA BANANA BREAD RECIPE (original)

My version of One Banana Banana Bread (with two small bananas), (adapted from The fauxMartha)

ingredients:

2/3 cup whole wheat white flour
1/3 cup toasted wheat germ
1/2 cup coconut palm (or brown) sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup 1% buttermilk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 small overripe bananas, mashed
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

Heat the oven to 300 degrees and spray or grease a loaf pan.

Melt the butter, mash the bananas, and beat the egg.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, wheat germ, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add in the melted butter and buttermilk, and stir well. Add the egg, and mix again. Finally, add the mashed bananas and vanilla and stir to combine.

Pour into a loaf pan.

In a small bowl, mash the topping ingredients together. I have no magic formula for distributing it across the top, so try whatever works. Or just leave it out — this bread was terrific without it.

Bake for 35-45 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in the pan for another ten minutes, then flip out onto a rack to finish. The flavor will really peak the next day, but if you must try it sooner, so be it.