Hello derby friends, fans, and bakers alike! This is Cruelladahero from Mid-State Sisters of Skate. Are you bored at home and going bananas? I have an amazing banana recipe perfected over the last two years and ready to share with you. No! I’m not sharing the banana bread I made. I am happy to explain how you can get your own loaf in the oven and not the 9 month injury kind. So sit back, relax, and read all the instructions before you get up and bust your butt in the kitchen. There will be weirdness; you can add awkward pauses, some pretty awful puns and derby terms.
So this is the part where you find out that I turned into one of those people who writes a whole novel about banana bread that you will have to scroll through to get to the recipe! I know, enough with the eye rolls. I will get to the ooey, gooey stuff soon enough.
This is a healthy alternative to the banana bread I grew up making filled with butter and processed sugar. It is always hard to stop using family recipes, but this one is my absolute favorites (shhh, no one tell my grandma). I have to remind myself that it is not a “healthy choice” when I sit at the table and eat the entire loaf before it has a chance to cool, but if no one sees me eat all the banana bread, do the calories even count?
The first thing we need to do is boil half a cup of water to make date syrup. I promise, I’m not crazy, but if you want to plow through the extra work there will be alternatives in the recipe. Pour the boiling water over half a cup of pitted medjool dates. Let this sit for about half an hour. Maybe do something that you have been putting off doing for the last week, like squats or scrub the kitchen floor. No judgement here! Welcome back, for this next part I use my Nutribullet, but any high-speed blender should work to blend the water and date mixture. If you have it, squeeze about a ½ teaspoon of lemon juice in. Just like that you made date syrup as a natural option to sweeten your banana bread.
You might think it is weird and try to juke the second step, but I urge you to follow along. In step two I have you mix the baking soda with the bananas. Did you know the baking soda needs an acid to react and help your loaf rise? Did you know bananas are acidic? Alright kids, you can close your science textbook that is about all I am going to throw at you today. So just like the jammer our bread can take the outside lane around the corner and eventually the baking soda and banana will meet…… or the bread can make the sweet apex jump and all we have to do is just not skip step two. It is a lot easier than being a jammer with all the plyometric workouts that go into making an apex jump so beautiful.
One of the troubles I have with working with coconut oil is how quickly it solidifies on contact with cold ingredients. I could easily solve this problem by making sure I set the eggs out ahead of time, but I never plan to bake it just happens. So usually I have to set the bowl on top of my warm oven to keep the oil from hardening to the side of the bowl while I mix all the ingredients together.
You have made it this far! Don’t call it off just yet. I have had my best result with the ratios of different flours in the recipe, but if you want to just use one type, I won’t block you.
Typically, if I haven’t added any mix-ins, the bread is done in 55 minutes; if I have added mix-ins, it needs closer to 60 minutes. I will admit I once added twice the amount of chocolate chip, but the loaf didn’t bake right. Did it still get eaten? Absolutely. Was I mad about it? Not at all.
Now, we just have to wait for our creation to bake. Should we do more squats while we wait or maybe clean up the explosion we just created in the kitchen; a dirty blender, two bowls, utensils, measuring cups, measuring spoons. We really should have thought this through before we decided to make banana bread. That’s okay, we are in this together, I will be the pivot to your jammer. Just hand off the star when you need a break. Don’t worry, I wont forget I’m the pivot….ha…ha….haha.
Ingredients
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2 large bananas)
1 teaspoon baking soda
⅓ cup melted coconut oil
½ cup date syrup or honey or maple syrup
2 eggs
¼ cup almond milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 cup regular whole wheat flour
¾ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
*This is the part where you can choose your own adventure and add pecans, walnuts, dried fruit, or possibly chocolate chips*
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit and grease a 9×5-inch loaf pan.
2. In a small bowl mash the bananas and put the baking soda on top.
3. In a large bowl, beat the oil and date syrup together with a whisk. Add the eggs and beat well, then whisk in the mashed banana mixture and milk.
4. Add the vanilla, salt and spices, and whisk to blend. Switch to your preferred mixing utensil and stir in the flour until combined. Now is the time to add a ¾ cup of any “choose your own adventure” ingredients.
5. Pour the batter into your greased loaf pan.
6. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the bread cool in the loaf pan for 10 minutes, then transfer it to a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes before slicing.