Since being quarantined I’ve been baking a lot. Not only does it pass the time, but a lot of my recipes allow me to use foods that will be expiring soon, and I hate wasting food. Banana bread is an easy dessert or breakfast food to make if you have some sad looking bananas in your fruit bowl. Why waste food when you can create something delicious out of it?

Ingredients for Bread

• 3 overripe bananas
• 2 c. flour
• 1 c. chopped walnuts
• 3/4 c. granulated sugar
• 1/4 c. packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 stick (1/2 c.) melted butter
• 1 tbs. vanilla extract
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon

Ingredients for Oat Topping (optional)

• 1/2 c. rolled oats
• 1/2 c. packed brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 c. flour
• 4 tbs. (1/2 stick) melted butter

Directions 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Mash the bananas in a bowl. Once mashed, add the granulated sugar and packed brown sugar. Once combined, add the eggs, vanilla, and melted butter. Mix until the ingredients are well combined and set aside.

In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon). Once combined, add the dry mixture into the wet mixture. The batter will look lumpy. Once the dry and wet ingredients are combined, add the chopped walnuts.

Spray a loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray, or grease with a stick of butter. Personally, I also line the loaf pan with parchment paper so that the bread comes right out of the pan.

In the bowl previously used for the dry mixture, combine the rolled oats, packed brown sugar, cinnamon, flour, and melted butter. Combine the ingredients until a crumbly top forms. Sprinkle the oat topping on the bread. (This topping is actually the same topping I make for my Apple Crisp recipe. I just make half the serving size because the banana walnut bread is so much smaller!)

Once the oat topping is on the loaf, bake at 375 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until a butter knife comes out clean from the loaf.

Once the bread is finished baking, let it allow to sit and cool for a bit before slicing into it. Add a smear of butter or cream cheese and enjoy!