Photo credit: Rachael Ray Show
Are you the type of person who firmly believes that adding fruit to any snack makes it totally healthy? Great! Me too.
Now that we’ve established that, it’s safe to assume that banana bread is one of the healthiest (and tastiest) baked goods on the planet. Did you know it also happens to be a very exciting canvas for creating new flavors?
Think of all the things you can do with just the humble banana. Banana + peanut butter. Boom. Banana + chocolate. Boom. Banana + brown sugar + RUM? Come on.
Now imagine each of those flavors in their own warm, sweet, delicious loaves.
Lucky for you, you don’t have to imagine. Here are seven exciting takes on the classic loaf.
(Anything But) Basic Banana Bread Recipe
Rachael Ray Show
To start things off, here is our favorite recipe for basic banana bread. It’s not too sweet, not too wet nor too cakey, and just the right amount of all that deliciously healthy banana.
Rachael Ray Show
Have you ever noticed that cooking fruit makes it sweeter? (Think apple pie.) If you haven’t, this is a good time to try it!
Roasting the bananas before baking them into the bread brings out the natural sugars and makes it even more banana-y.
PS. Because the natural banana sugars take the place of some of the refined sugar in the recipe, this one is even “healthier.” Have another slice!
Rachael Ray Show
This one’s for the healthy eater out there who lacks the discipline it takes to convince oneself that including bananas in a recipe automatically makes it healthy.
So here it is, right up front. No gimmicks. A very healthy banana bread.
The best part is that it doesn’t even taste healthy. Go figure! You’ll end up having to convince yourself that this bread is actually good for you.
Health nuts and fake health nuts be warned. What follows are four banana breads that are so decadent and so indulgent, it gets harder and harder to convince yourself that you are in fact eating fruit! But fear not, these breads were meant to be dessert. Indulge a little.
Rachael Ray Show
First up we have the good old fashioned Banana Split Bread. A mash-up of the iconic diner-style dessert and our hero, the banana bread.
Rachael Ray Show
Bananas foster is actually the first banana related dessert I can think of. Bananas were meant to be with rum. This recipe bakes the taste of bananas foster right into the bread!
To top it all off, the warm loaf is punched up with more rum and served with boozy whipped cream.
Rachael Ray Show
After that boozy banana bread, we’ll move right into the late-night breads—the first of which is the Nutella Banana Bread. This is a one-up on the reigning late night snack: licking Nutella off the spoon.
Rachael Ray Show
Legend has it that the “King of Rock and Roll” had some pretty strange midnight snack hankerings, the most famous of which was a fried peanut butter sandwich with sliced bananas and crisp bacon.
We’ll just call this the “King of Banana Breads.”