Over the past few months, I’ve made several loaves of banana bread. At first it was just a good use of bananas that ripened too much for smoothies. After a while, it became somewhat therapeutic as we acclimated ourselves to quarantine living.

I’ve tried many variations and have found that this version seems to be a pretty good foundation for banana bread. I always use three bananas and before I begin mixing, I gather my ingredients. Why? Because I live in a household where the three eggs I saw in the fridge on Monday night will magically transform into an empty egg carton by Tuesday morning.

When we’re sure we have everything needed, we go to work. Mixing everything together is easy and takes just a few minutes.

Cream butter and sugars.

Blend in eggs and mashed bananas.

Add the buttermilk and flour, then pour batter into loaf pan. See. Easy peasy.

I place my loaf pan on a heavy duty cookie sheet while it’s baking. I really don’t expect the batter to spill over while baking; I just find that it helps with heat distribution. At least that’s what I tell myself. My oven is electric (for now) and bakes this bread up in 55 minutes.

I can hardly wait to get my gas stove installed. It’s just hanging around waiting on a gas line. We have homework to do to find a company qualified to complete such a task.

Until said gas line materializes, we’ll just stay the course and enjoy whatever we can get out of the electric machine… like this beautiful loaf of bread. If you could smell this web page, hints of cardamom and ginger would gently caress that sniffer of yours. It’s a beautiful thing.

Should you choose to try this recipe, know that stir-ins are allowed. Think walnuts or pecans, or my favorite, dark chocolate chips. Not too many though. Enjoy!

THE Banana Bread

Ingredients
6 tbsp salted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup packed light brown sugar
¼ cup white granulated sugar
3 ripe bananas, coarsely mashed
3 eggs, slightly beaten
½ cup whole buttermilk
2 cups bread flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp fine sea salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground cardamom
¼ tsp ground ginger
1 tsp instant espresso powder

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray sides and bottom of a dark loaf pan lightly with Baker’s Joy nonstick baking spray with flour. (Note: the pan I use is nonstick but I still spray it.)

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, sea salt, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and espresso powder. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugars on medium speed until creamy using an electric stand or hand mixer fitted with a flat beater. Add the bananas and egg and beat until smooth. Add the buttermilk and mix until combined.

Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture and beat just until combined. The batter should still be slightly lumpy. Using a spatula, scrape down the sides of the bowl and pour into the prepared loaf pan. It should be no more than two-thirds full.

Bake 55-60 minutes until the loaf is dark golden brown and dry to the touch with edges pulled away from the sides of pan. Leave the bread in the pan for 5 minutes then turn the loaf out onto a wire rack to cool. Cut into thick slices to serve.

Options:
Stir in ¾ cup chopped pecans or walnuts
Stir in ½ cup dark chocolate chips