My NSA guy likes Banana Nut Bread!

So, is it just me or has everyone’s NSA guy been ‘on point’ these last few days?

Gotta admit, sometimes I'm grateful for government spying. It's helpful from time to time, you know? My NSA guy reads my mind and provides me with everything from memes to recipes at a moment’s notice.

Yes, trolls, I know that *technically* there's no guy at the NSA listening in on my thoughts. I know it's internet algorithms. Or is it?

Which brings me to today’s post: Banana Nut Bread! I don't know if you've heard, but Banana Bread is making ‘Le Comeback.’ Don't believe me? Just ask its publicist.

*Seriously though, if you haven't, check out Jordan Firstman's impression of banana bread’s publicist.(4th slide) I LOL'd.* 😂

So, after having Banana Nut bread show up on Instagram stories and feeds EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE (or so it seemed), my craving for it went through the roof. Truth be told, I don’t even know if I’ve been craving banana nut bread because I’ve been seeing it everywhere, or if I’ve been seeing it everywhere because I’ve been craving it.

It’s the chicken 🐔 or the egg 🥚 conundrum right now- so let’s just leave it there…

Back to Banana Bread...

Obviously, because I needed ripe bananas for baking, everyone in my house decided that they were going to eat bananas before they got to be ripe enough for me to use.

Guys, green bananas are not great for baking, they lack flavor and sweetness…so just no, OK?

If you leave green bananas in a closed paper bag a few days, BOOM: ripe bananas.

*It’s not magic, it accelerates the ripening process because paper bags let oxygen pass through, but keep ethylene in. Ethylene is a gas given off by fruit that ripens and softens them.*

Call me Bill Nye, guys, I just ‘scienced’ !

[No, it’s not a word. I ‘verbed’ it. Look it up, it’s a thing. I’ll spare you the linguistic rant.]

Judge all you want, I don't care. I aim to make Alton Brown proud.

Anyhow, this morning I woke up and THERE WERE 3 RIPE BANANAS. It was a sign…

Or had my NSA guy escalated to manifesting real things and not just internet memes?

🤷‍♀️

Either way, YAY, BANANA BREAD!

Of course, in life, nothing is perfect. So when looking for ingredients I found out there wasn't enough white sugar, the flour was expired, and my mom (I'm staying at her house right now), didn't have a loaf pan.

At this point, I was invested. Banana bread was happening, I didn't care how.

Then, just like my NSA guy, the universe provided:

I found brown sugar I could use to supplement the white sugar. I had a muffin tin and a small oven-safe serving dish to bake in. And the flour? We're mid- pandemic, I'll survive questionable flour, right?

Well, I did go on the the internet and confirmed with my NSA guy that flour lasts for 6 months after the expiration date, so...

SAFE!

#ThanksGoogle

After practicing what I preach and finding substitutions around the house, this is my Banana Nut Bread recipe:

Ingredients:

• The miraculous 3 ripe bananas.

• 1/2 cup of sugar. [As you already know I did 1/4 cup of white sugar and 1/4 cup of brown sugar. You can add another 1/4 cup of brown sugar if you want it sweeter, since brown sugar sweetens less, but I don't like super sweet banana bread.]

• Handful of walnuts. [I just had raw, whole walnuts. You can use chopped or toasted, or just omit them if you're not a fan. You can also substitute for chocolate chips, because why not?]

• Scant 1 1/2 cups of AP flour.

• 1 tsp of baking soda.

• 1 tsp of vanilla extract.

• 2 eggs. [I've read recipes that say lightly beaten, but it's all the same to me. I add them last to keep from over-beating them.]

• 1/3 cup of melted *salted* butter. [You can use unsalted, I'd just add more salt later in the recipe]

• About 1/8 tsp of salt. [I went Salt Bae on it and added it by hand.]

How to:

This is where the beauty of this recipe comes in. It's too easy.

First, preheat the oven to 335°F. Grease your loaf pan, or in my case muffin tin and smaller serving dish. In a big bowl, mash bananas and add everything but the eggs and walnuts.

*Usually recipes say to add wet to dry ingredients, this is to help the flour absorb things evenly, as well as to avoid flour from coating your entire kitchen. For this recipe, because the bananas are mashed first, I don't really care.*

Remember how I mentioned I was at my mom's? My super high-tech equipment for mixing everything was a dinner fork and a mixing bowl! This is proof that there's no excuse if the craving's strong enough! *If you do have access to hand-held or stand mixer, mix at slow speed.*

After mixing it all, add and mix in the eggs.

*I've been told to avoid over-beating eggs in baked goods. Apparently it yields better texture in your finished product. To be honest, I don't know if this is science or a myth for whole eggs. It's a real thing for egg whites. Just to be safe, lets add them last.*

Finally, right before you're about to pour the batter into your baking dish, add the walnuts and mix them in.

*I add them at the very end to prevent them from sinking. A better thing to do to prevent fruit, nuts, and chocolate chips from sinking is to lightly coat them in flour. I always do this with fruit, I never do it with nuts. It's your call if you want to do this or not.*

Pour batter and bake it in your loaf pan for approximately 1 hr.

*Due to my improvisation, I left my muffin tin in the oven for 19 mins and my baking dish for 36. The true test is to use a toothpick and see if it comes out clean OR touch the top of your banana bread and see if it bounces back. I usually go for the toothpick approach, because I'm never sure about the 'bounce'. Because every oven is different, times may vary slightly, so look for golden brown bread and the banana nut bread/ muffin separating from the pan a little.*

Wait for your banana bread to cool before un-molding. You can serve this banana bread with butter or eat it plain, like I do.

These are the muffins, with my mom's killer view!

This is the full picture of my lack-of-loaf-pan improvisation:

I hope you guys like the recipe and the rant! I LOVE YOU, NSA GUY!

*Also, cheers to practicing what you preach* 🥂 Cooking [and sometimes even baking] is possible with substitutions and improvisation.

Hope to see y'all soon for another recipe and rant.

Love,