Bananas

As much as I like to eat seasonal, local and sustainable, I also like to eat bananas despite some evidence bananas are not sustainable. It’s not that I don’t care about bananas, the environment, or the underpaid workers, I do. It’s that I like bananas so much.

Peeled and ready to eat in seconds, bananas are sweet, creamy and filling. Banana food combinations are endless: chocolate, peanut butter, grape jelly, dill pickles (don’t judge), honey and ice cream to name a few.

I also love to bake banana muffins, bread and pancakes. Although when I left The Wooden Spoon in 1999, I swore I’d never flip another banana pancake in my life. But then a funny thing happened. Elvis mentioned he’d never eaten a banana pancake.

In his life.

Yeah, that’s all I need to hear.

However you make your pancakes-with wheat flour, gluten-free, from a box mix, or the recipe from your grandmother, after you pour the mixed pancake batter into the hot skillet, slice a ripe banana over the top, let the pancakes bubble, then flip and continue cooking until the bananas caramelize, about another minute or so.

Serve banana-side up. Top with butter, syrup, jam, yogurt, walnuts, or more sliced bananas. Eat immediately, or place on a baking sheet and keep warm in a 200 degree oven until you use all the batter.

Need another banana recipe? Here’s my banana-walnut muffin recipe.

Appetite required.

Banana muffins (or bread)

2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 ripe bananas, ripe and freckled
1 cup sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 ¼ cups flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ cup dried cranberry (pomegranate flavored) optional
½ cup toasted walnuts, chopped (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Spray pan coating on sides and bottoms of muffin tins or use liners) or a loaf pan.
In a measuring cup with spout, beat two eggs. Add vanilla and beat some more.
In a small bowl, mash peeled bananas.
In a medium bowl, add butter with sugar.
In a large bowl, sift, or whisk flour, salt, and baking soda.
With an electric hand mixer on medium speed, cream sugar and butter about three minutes.
A little at a time, add eggs at medium speed, until mix resembles creamy icing. Then add bananas with mixer at same speed. The mix will look curdled.
Use a spatula to scrape down sides and then begin to sprinkle dry mix into the creamy mix, a little at a time. Use the spatula to fold in the dry mix. Be careful not to over-mix batter.
Add dried cranberries and walnuts, (if desired).
Pour into prepared baking pan or tins and place in the preheated oven. Bake muffin tins twenty-five minutes, or loaf pan fifty-five minutes. Insert a toothpick in center. If it comes out clean, muffins and or bread are done.
Let muffin tins cool a few minutes before you pop them on their sides to cool in the pan. I used the back handle of the spoon to do this, but you can use a butter knife or spreader.
Let the loaf pan cool on a rack for ten minutes before you remove it from pan to cool until slicing, or wrap with plastic wrap, then foil and freeze for up to four month.