Banana Bread with a Middle Eastern Twist that will Make You Go Bananas!

So if you Google banana bread recipes you will undoubtedly find a gazillion claims of the BEST banana bread recipe as well as almost scholarly arguments on what makes banana bread really good. Nuts? No nuts? Sweet? Not so sweet? Crumbly? Moist? How about some booze? My other half has actually experimented with that (spiced rum). Somehow that one does not jive with me much.

Well, guess what? They are all wrong! I HAVE the best one in all eternity. 😀

OK, well… maybe not. I won’t toot my own horn that loud and I am grounded in reality to venture, at best, that it’s pretty darn good if I say so myself.

Try this one for size. I took the recipe I’ve used for years and just replaced it with Jomara Date Honey Topping and pistachios to give it a local twist and it turned out to be absolute banana bread perfection! I don’t think I need to tweak this any further – ever! It was so good that Z actually said “Ok, you can make the banana bread from now on”, with an almost sad face. Up until that point, he’s been holding the slot of the banana bread “go-to” person for a bit. Ha! Redemption!

So now that I’ve slightly reinvented and aced my recipe, I’m sharing it with the world because I just like to share the love. 🙂

Not a baker? Trust me, baking may be a science, but it’s not rocket science. This is waaaaay easy to make. So the next time you have end-of-life bananas laying around go ahead and give it a try and be sure tag me the pic on Instagram (@VIYVETTE).

What you’ll need:

1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup Jomara Date Honey Topping (for those across the pond, if you can’t find this just replace with honey)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup mashed bananas
1 3/4 cups white flour (you can use half white and half wheat if you like)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup hot water
1/2 cup chopped pistachios, or other nut that makes you happy

What To Do:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. In your favorite (or lucky) bowl, beat or hand-mix the oil and Jomara Date Honey Topping.
3. Add your eggs and give it a good mix.
4. Add the bananas and vanilla.
5. Stir in the flour and salt.
6. Stir in the baking soda to the hot water and add to the batter.
7. Add and mix in the chopped nuts.
8. Spread batter into a Pam-sprayed 9×5 inch loaf pan.
9. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes. Let it cool before slicing. One half hour to be safe.

Add on: You can drop some dollops of apricot preserves on the top before baking for some extra goodness!

One more thing. My pics did not come out so great, so no justice is done here. More reason to make this again soon so I can take better photos. 😉