I know. It’s common. Nothing special. Let’s move it along. But wait!

Look – I can’t even remember the last time I made banana bread. I have bad memories of slicing them open, only to find that dark, doughy center that results from an imbalance of wet and fat to dry. Or something. In fact, the last time I made one that didn’t have that mysterious dense middle was in 9th grade home ec class. As I recall, I forgot to put in the banana.

Sometimes, the simplest, most prosaic entries in the annals of food are the hardest to get right. So when I noticed that I had two beautiful decent-sized bananas on the counter that had, shall we say, “gone off”, I couldn’t bring myself to throw them out. I also noticed a pint of blueberries in the fridge that were slightly past their prime, and the proverbial lightbulb went off! I decided to try it again.

I found a basic banana bread recipe in one of my ancient cookbooks* and modified it to 1) fit my loaf pan, and 2) suit the actual ingredients I had on hand. Now, without further ado:

Banana Blueberry Walnut Bread

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and flour a 10”x 5” x 3” loaf pan

3 cups All Purpose Flour
1/2 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
1/4 tsp. Ground Nutmeg
1/4 tsp. Ground Ginger
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Baking Soda
3 Large Eggs
1 Cup Sugar
1/3 cup Oil (I used canola, but anything neutral will do)
2 Large Bananas, very ripe & mashed
(or approx. just over 1 cup)
1 to 2 cups Fresh or frozen Blueberries
1 1/4 cups Chopped Walnuts (optional)

In one bowl, stir together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, salt, and baking soda. In a second bowl, stir together the eggs, sugar, oil, and mashed bananas. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and stir. Add the blueberries and walnuts, and stir to combine.

Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and bake for approx. 70 minutes (1 hr. 10 mins.).

To prevent over-browning, fold a piece of aluminum foil in half, and place loosely over top after desired color is achieved – about 1 hour. Start checking for doneness with a toothpick or thin-bladed knife after 1 hour. Tester should come out clean. If not done after 70 minutes, add time 5 minutes at a time.

I had no idea how it would turn out, but what the hell. It turned out awesome. It was beautiful, and MJ said it was the best “quickbread” I ever made. So of course, I had to write it down before I forgot what I did (there are more than a few of those in my past… one-time-wonders, never to be seen – or tasted – again, because I couldn’t remember how I did it). And since I did actually write it down, I thought I’d share it with you. Feel free to experiment on your own!

Enjoy!

*I’m not saying which “ancient cookbook” the basic recipe came from, because of an issue a food blogger recently had with one of America’s Test Kitchens‘ online publications. Subject for another day. Suffice it to say that it’s been around forever, and I didn’t get the recipe online.