Banana Spice Bread

Warm flavorful spices baked into a perfectly moist and dense bread. Show your bananas some love with this loaf!

I grew up on the banana bread from the bodega in the green and yellow wrapper. It was always moist and full of artificial banana flavor, which for that time in my life was great. Then, while on my college campus, I stepped into a Starbucks for the first time...and everything changed. The first bite of that banana bread was warm, moist, nutty, crunchy, soft spiced heaven. This bread is my version of the perfect banana bread with nuts (as I also make the perfect banana bread with chocolate, okaaay). It's a simple one bowl recipe that's easy to bake and with a warm beverage, or some of my maple butter, is the epitome of comfort in a bite.

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Banana Spice Bread

Makes one 9x5 inch loaf

Ingredients

• 3 ripe bananas

• 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar

• 1 large egg

• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

• 1/2 tsp ground allspice

• 1/4 tsp ground ginger

• 1/4 tsp ground cloves

• 1 cup of mixed nuts (almonds, pistachios, walnuts)

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line your loaf pan with aluminum foil or parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, mash your bananas.

3. In a small bowl, heat the butter until it is just melted and pour onto the mashed banana.

4. Add the egg, vanilla extract, baking soda, salt, flour and spices and mix it together well.

5. Pour the batter into the aluminum foil or parchment paper lined loaf pan.

6. Roughly chop your mixed nuts and pour them evenly on top of the batter in the loaf pan.

7. Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the loaf comes out clean.

8. Remove the loaf from the pan using the aluminum foil (or over hang of the parchment paper) and allow it to cool on a cooling rack for 10-15 minutes.

Notes

• Be sure to let your bananas ripen until the peels are brown, lumpy and ugly. Bonus points if you can go further (insert wide-eyed emoji).

• I use heavy duty aluminum foil. This allows me to remove the loaf from the pan and later remove the foil from the loaf without tears or any of the foil sticking to the loaf. I do not recommend using foil if you use regular aluminum foil (it's just not worth the headache).

• I leave lumps of banana when I mash them up, so I can taste the banana in every bite!

Photos