The perfect banana bread for those who don’t love bananas!

I used to force myself to eat them for health reasons. However, ironically, I do like some desserts with bananas.

I’m not a fan of bananas, or anything that has a strong banana taste in it. Why would someone have a banana smoothie? Or banana ice cream? No, thank you!  Even getting myself to eat a banana is quite the task, taking about 10 minutes.  

Bite – chew – forcefully swallow – repeat.

I used to force myself to eat them for health reasons. Now I’ll just stick them in a smoothie with MANY other delicious ingredients to hide the taste.

However, ironically, I do like some desserts with bananas. By some, I mean banoffee pie; mainly because of the caramel/dulce de leche and the crust.

And then there is banana bread. I do love banana bread, which is odd given that banana is the main ingredient but, once combined with everything else, the strong flavour subdues. I also make sure to mash up the bananas enough (no chunks please!). I believe that one of the reasons I’m happy with banana bread is because I always add in other flavours, like chocolate, peanut butter or nuts. So clearly I’m just masking the actual banana part…

As usual, the banana bread making process comes with having overly ripe bananas that need to be consumed immediately. This happened last Thursday: my dad was in town for the weekend, so I wanted to keep spoiling him with food. He mentioned the bananas were going to go bad, so while he napped, I got up and immediately started the baking process. What a lucky man, he gets to nap and when he wakes up – FRESH banana bread!

So admittedly, while most banana bread recipes call for three bananas, I only use two. Once again, the less obvious the banana is, the better.. at least for me. Feel free to add more bananas if you like!

Recipe a la Ayla:

Ingredients:

Butter – ½ cup

Sugar  – 1 cup

Eggs – 2

Bananas – 2 (very ripe)

Milk – ¼ cup

Vanilla – 1 tsp

Flour – 2 cups

Baking Soda – 1 tsp

Baking Powder – 1 tsp

Salt – ½ tsp

Optional: Chocolate chips, nuts (walnuts, pecans, whatever you want)

Photo: Ayla Iqbal

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven at 175 degrees C (350 degrees F).

2.Melt the butter and put that in a bowl. I’m a one bowl type of girl so you won’t need to worry about dirtying any more dishes. (Just make sure the bowl is large enough!)

3. Toss in the sugar and whisk. Add the eggs, one at a time, and whisk some more.

4. Then add in the milk and vanilla. Whisk. Add in the mashed bananas, and keep whisking. Then add in the baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix it around.  Finally, add in the flour and combine well.

5. Lastly – add in whatever else you want. Chocolate or nuts generally are the best combination! This step is optional.

6. Pour the batter in an already buttered pan. (I use a loaf pan) Bake for 55 minutes.

Photo: Ayla Iqbal

7. Let it cool. Remove and eat.

This post originally appeared here.