I am a lover of all things banana, (except for bananas themselves, strange huh?) and therefore have amassed quite a collection of banana recipes.  Having tried several versions of banana bread over the years, I finally settled on this particular recipe.  With a true fresh banana flavor, a wonderfully moist texture, and a subtle nutty crunch, this is a winner in my book.  I made a batch today (I had to do something with those browning bananas) and thought I would share the recipe with everyone.

In this recipe, the bananas are divided and used in two applications.  Half of the bananas are pureed and creamed with the sugar to create a banana-cream base for the bread.  The other half of the bananas are mashed lightly and folded in at the end to give luscious chucks of fruit within the baked bread.  You get the best of both worlds with an intensely flavored bread complimented by the pieces of banana.  I also love the ease and quick preparation of this recipe.  The biggest time saver of the recipe is that the butter is melted and then cooled instead of creamed into the sugar.  This not only allows for a simpler mixing technique, but you don’t have to plan ahead to soften your butter.  You can decide to make the bread and be done 20 minutes later.

A special treat on its own, a slice of this bread would be the perfect desert for me.  (I ironically really don’t have that much of a sweet tooth.)  However, if you’d like to spice things up, here is an easy way to turn this bread into a plated dessert:  Using the bread as my base, I like to make Bananas Foster Sundaes.  Use a slice of banana bread as your base, top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and then spoon over warm sauteed bananas in rum sauce.  Now who could resist that?  For a fancier presentation, I cube the bread and build my sundaes in tall dessert glasses.

Recipe: Banana Bread

Recipe: Sauteed Bananas in Rum Sauce