An Ode to Banana Bread

Speaker 1 00:00:10 British Vogue declared 2020, the banana bread Renaissance of the Corona virus pandemic as our bananas went spotty after days in quarantine. So did our sanity and out of the madness came loaves and loaves of dense deliciousness. Ari Sloss is a third year physics and math major. Have you ever made banana bread Speaker 2 00:00:34 A million times? Yeah, really? I didn't realize it was a trend during the pandemic, but I just did it myself because I like banana bread. I always had bananas lying around at the end of the week. So I ended up making like a loaf a week for a good six months. Would you say that you Speaker 1 00:00:52 Perfected how you like your banana bread? Speaker 2 00:00:56 I don't know about perfected cause it could probably always be made better, but there's a recipe in the better homes and gardens cookbook that my mom always used that I used to. And I've, I've changed it to be better. In my opinion, Speaker 1 00:01:11 I did my fair share of baking in 2020 and in 2021 and twice so far in 2022, with every new loaf, the comfort food comes closer to my heart. So imagine the bitterness offense resentment. I felt toward an October, 2021 headline from Nexstar media wire banana bread is so last year. Here's what we're starting to bake instead. Well, next star keep your peach cobbler, apple crumble and monkey bread. Out of my kitchen, the magic of turning a brown banana into a top tier treat is why it's endured generations. According to the king Arthur baking company, banana bread became popular in the early years of the great depression. Precious bananas were ripe for the baking. Once they went brown and chemical webinars like baking powder were newly mass produced. The recent rise of the lushest loaf. Surely wouldn't have been possible without the internet. A search for banana bread on all recipes.com produced 6,816 results, including maple banana bread, paleo banana bread, mango banana bread, bang in banana bread, boozy banana bread, mommy's banana bread. Mother's banana bread. Grandma's banana bread best ever banana bread. Low-fat banana bread, lower fat banana bread, almost no fat banana bread. And perhaps the Internet's favorite with five stars and 10,033 reviews. Janet's rich banana bread. Thanks Janet. The adaptability of the dish is undoubtedly a favorite feature Nixey Straza editorial director for Northwestern spoon university magazine told me how she makes banana bread work for her. Speaker 3 00:03:13 I've been vegan for about six years. I've been vegetarian since I was born. I actually happen to love bending their brand. So pretty common, especially for something that's fruit-based like a banana bread. Obviously the main flavor profile is fruit for an egg replacer. I would use applesauce, um, which is super cheap and it really great substitute. So I use that. I use coconut oil or earth balance for butter replacements. The banana is actually a really great that banana is also used as an egg and a lot of vegan baked goods. So it's actually worked out perfectly for, it's actually a really easy thing he gets, Speaker 1 00:03:49 But wait, Speaker 3 00:03:51 I think it's more of a cake. I mean, it has the consistency more of like a lemon pound cake and it does a sourdough Speaker 1 00:04:00 Is banana bread a bread? Speaker 2 00:04:03 Yes. So I'm not like totally set on the culinary specifics, but I think it's something that has like less sugar in it than a cake. And it's not quite as rich as a cake. And it's something that you can like make a little more savory by adding spices to it, which is what I like to do Speaker 1 00:04:24 For what it's worth. Here's. My favorite banana might not be a bread recipe, Lauren, Alan's our favorite banana bread on tastes better from scratch.com. I add a cup and a half of chocolate chips when I have them, but the crispy crust and immaculate insides stand alone delectably on this particular Wednesday night, the three overripe bananas in my kitchen lived to see another day, but only because I was producing a radio story in their honor for w N U R news. I'm Sarah Kadara.