A Ripe Banana Bread Story

Basketball season ended in February. It was during basketball season that the following events unfolded, leading up to my receiving banana bread today.

After our boys’ team finished their game, one of our boys sat on the sideline eating a piece of banana bread, baked by his mother. At that point in time, I sat down next to the daughter of my McConquistador friend and started chatting. She had the audacity to belittle my baking abilities without ever having sampled the fare. She was sure that his mom, her mom and moms across the globe could bake better banana bread than me.

To settle the matter once and for all, she proposed that if our girls’ team won, then I would have to bake her a loaf of my banana bread. No problem – I was up to the task. However, it seemed not quite fair that the deal had nothing in it for me, with the noteworthy exception of clearing my good name from the baking naysayers. So I asked her what was in it for me.

Now I want to make it very clear, at this point, that I am no Pete Rose. Although the eventual outcome is the same as though I had made a wager on our girls’ game, I did not wager. I simply wanted our feisty young friend to offer something in return.

She stammered a bit and replied, “Well, if we lose, then I’ll bake you a loaf of banana bread.” And that’s how today, nearly three months later, I received a loaf of banana bread at lunchtime.

My banana bread is better. So there.

For those who are itching for another banana bread recipe and would like to attempt to replicate mine, here’s the recipe. The first part, I’m told, comes from Betty Crocker. The second part is how I’ve perfected it.

• 1 ¼ cup sugar
• 2 ½ cup flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 sachet sucre vanille
• ½ cup buttermilk
• ½ cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1 ½ cup mashed ripe bananas (3 medium)
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup nuts OR chocolate chips

Mix sugar and butter. Stir in eggs. Add bananas, buttermilk and vanilla. Add remaining ingredients just until moistened. Grease bottom only of loaf pan (one 9x5 or two 8x4). Pour into pan(s) and bake at 350° on the lowest oven rack position for 1 hour and 15 minutes until toothpick in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes and remove from pan.

My variations on the above recipe, or additional tips on what to do after pouring batter into the pan(s), but prior to baking the bread:

• Take 1/3 cup of chocolate chips, or mixture of chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, peanut butter chips or whatever chips there may be (hereafter, simply referred to as “chips”) and – here’s a big tip – while they’re still in the measuring cup, shake in just a pinch of flour, such that all of the chips have just the slightest coating of flour on them. Pour the chips on top of the batter, rather than mixing the chips in with the batter. This keeps the chips from all melting at the bottom of the pan(s). The chips will slowly sink into the bread as it bakes.
• Roll some brown sugar in your hand and create a center line of brown sugar right down the length of each pan. The brown sugar will slowly melt into the bread as it bakes.
• Sprinkle a layer of cinnamon on top of the batter just before placing the pan(s) into the oven.

One more tip:

• In lieu of buttermilk, use normal milk, but squirt some lemon juice into the milk and let it sit for five minutes before mixing it into the batter.