Banana Bread: Hacked

I am not a fan of bananas. I ate one once when I was a kid (like pre-k age) and it turned my teeth grey. Yes, the trauma of being teased on the playground will stay with you forever! But also banana bread is delicious so let's get past this, okay? Okay.

So as someone who doesn't like bananas, they still manage to find their way into my kitchen on a weekly basis. Yup, weekly. Because they're good at hiding in things like smoothies or coated in peanut butter on toast or in banana bread! That's all the ways I hide bananas in my food, three is a solid number.

The hardest part about banana bread? Planning. Because you have to let the bananas ripen before you can eat them but grocery stores are all like 'oh we don't want these bananas to go bad before you can eat them so here are some green, not even remotely ripe yet bananas you can eat in 2-5 days from now'. Then add another 2-5 days to get banana bread-ready bananas.

 

But alas, ain't no one got time for that. So here's a hack. You can stick the bananas in the oven and 'ripen' (I'm pretty sure we're cooking them) bananas that way! I did this on the preheat, just heat the oven to 300F (something like 125-150C is what I did here in the UK) and bake the bananas until they're black. You may need to turn the bananas over.

Allow them to cool before you add them to the batter or use mits because they are hot hot hot. But also mushy! So you can just blend them right in. And then you can have delicious banana bread whenever you want! Go-to recipe from my fav (and wannabe maj), Joy the Baker.

Banana bread/life hacked.

Recipe

• 1 cup sugar
• 115g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature and cut into chunks
• 2 eggs
• 2 softened bananas
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 generous cup of chocolate chips
• Chopped walnuts (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 300F/150C (ish). Place two bananas in a pan and roast until blackened. Set aside to cool.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the sugar and softened butter until creamy.
3. Add the eggs (officially one at a time, unofficially still don't have time for that).
4. Mix in the bananas. If they're squishy enough, you can just mix them in with a hand mixer, otherwise give them a preemptive mash with a fork before incorporating. 
5. In a small bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. Or don't and just add it to the large bowl.
6. Mix the wet and dry ingredients together until there is no flour visible.
7. Fold in the chocolate chips and nuts if adding.
8. Bake for 45 minutes until golden brown and no longer wobbly (or a knife/skewer poked in the middle comes out clean).