I had a friend in high school who bought a slice of banana bread from the canteen almost every day.
Cruelly in year eight, they stopped making the chocolate chip banana bread as if removing that sprinkle of happiness would really make a difference to the health of the banana bread! But that’s not the point.
Lots of people stopped really buying it after that, but not this friend. I remember it clearly because every time she bought a piece she’d get attacked and harassed by her friends until she’d given them at least half. And by her friends, I mean me. It was good banana bread, it really was.
But as we grew older, we learned to read the ingredients list. And with knowledge becomes great responsibility. It wasn’t a very tasty group of products they squeezed in there. One of the ingredients was beef lard, all I’m gonna say.
After that, I became a believer in homemade banana bread. Just as delicious without the beef lard! This banana bread today is one of the family recipes that makes the best banana bread (in my humble opinion).
I know the title makes it sound a little…bland. But it really isn’t! The recipe is from the Moosewood Cookbook, which is one of my favorite cookbooks ever. So many childhood staple meals came out of that book. Vegetable ratatouille, Cheesy polenta, Bean Burritos, all the old classics.
And this banana bread. I mentioned it when I made these delicious banana choc chunk muffins. The recipe says to coat the pan in sesame seeds to stop it from sticking but I used baking paper because we didn’t have sesame seeds. Also, I had a feeling it would probably come out looking like lizard bread, something I don’t think would photograph well.
Can you believe I’ve had this blog for seven months and this is the first Banana Bread recipe I’ve put up? What is that about? Well, partly the reason is that muffins are way easier to serve and photograph.
I’ve adapted lots of bread before, like the sticky Banana Caramel Muffins that were originally going to be a loaf. Loaves have benefits that muffins can’t really trump because you can toast them and put toppings on them. What is banana bread without peanut butter and banana slices? Or ricotta and honey? You tell me. You tell me, friends.
This banana bread is way healthier than your classic shop-bought plastic-wrapped slice. It’s light but still moist and fluffy. The crust is super crispy and maybe my favorite part because it’s so thin you don’t get that terrible hard edge that takes away from the squishy middle part.
I adapted it to make a vegan version with vegan butter and chia eggs, but you can sub in normal eggs and super soft butter, or even olive oil.
You can tell hippies wrote the recipe because there are a few rather strange instructions. Or rather lack of instructions. (I love hippies! But you can’t deny they can be vague! ) I should have known that hand whisking soft butter and eggs would end in lumpy egg-butter, but I tried it anyway.
The result was a super sore arm from about an hour of trying to get the butter pieces small enough to combine with the other ingredients. And I couldn’t heat it up so the butter would melt because that would cook the eggs! So I’ve kindly amended the instructions out of respect for your arms.
As I’ve mentioned, this banana bread is great toasted and served with jam, Nutella, peanut butter, butter, honey, ricotta, banana slices, mashed banana, melted chocolate, desiccated coconut, and coconut cream, ok you get the picture.
I could go on all day. But it’s also great plain and fresh from the oven.
It freezes really well, lasts wrapped really well, and can be fancied up with chopped nuts, chocolate chips, coconut, seeds, anything you like really! And yep, it’s vegan.
Photos & Recipes by Lillian Crowther Gibson. Sugar&Cinnamon.
