three bowls

Dr. Weil’s recipe for Banana Bread would probably not win any County Fair dessert prizes.

It’s made with whole wheat (pastry) flour, uses honey as a sweetener, and only has a minimum of oil. (It’s technically not true "low-fat" by FDA definition, though, as it contains nuts, but it's low saturated fat and that's probably the more important thing.)

So it’s not a banana bread that is going to taste like a cake or super-sugary muffin.  It’s a little heavier, and significantly less sweet.

That said, it’s still pretty satisfying for relatively healthy treat.  The bread stays moist for days, and freezes well.  If you are a carbohydrate addict, it’s probably one of the least damaging ways to get your fix. 

And the ingredients are not just less-damaging, some are actually pretty good for you.  As the recipe notes, “[bananas] are rich in potassium…and offer a fair share of magnesium... In addition, bananas help to strengthen the stomach lining and are good for soothing indigestion.”  Walnuts have been found in at least one study to be “ rich in compounds that reduce hardening of the arteries, and keep them flexible,” even at a greater rate than olive oil.

So these are the things I tell myself in order to justify having banana bread for breakfast whenever I can.  I like to make a batch, slice it, and freeze, then take out a slice and put it in foil on top of my coffeemaker at night.  By the next morning, it’s usually thawed, and the heat from the coffeemaker finishes the job if not.

Dr Weil’s recipe, though, leaves out the most important part: banana preparation so that your recipe has maximum banana flavor to offset the virtuousness of its ingredients.  (This part is not for the squeamish or for anyone with any kind of OCD-type skeeved response to oogy food.) 

So here's how you do it: 

1. Go to grocery store and – if you even can nowadays – find the ripest banana you can.
2. Take it home and do nothing.
3. Continue to do nothing until the banana begins to look really skanky.
4. Continue to do nothing.
5. Look at the banana, think to yourself, “Oh my god, that’s so gross, there’s like FUZZ on the STEM!  This banana MUST have gone too far.  I should throw it out.”
6. Resist the urge to throw it out.
7. Wait as many more days as you can stand.
8. Finally, after you are positive there’s no way it can still be an edible banana, start to make the banana bread.  
9. If banana really has gone too far (although I’ve had success with ones that looked like the entire thing was just one giant bruise) discard, curse this blog, and subtract one day from the whole process next time.

It's like the episode of Seinfeld where Kramer tries to see how far he can drive with the gas gauge on E.  You just have to keep going past your point of comfort. 

As an alternative, you can roast the bananas.  That’s how Cook’s Country got the best flavor for their low-fat banana bread. (Must be member to access recipe.)  But where's the sense of danger in that?

Or, possibly give the banana to a semi-truck driver and ask them to haul it around for a while in the cab. I remember hearing something a gajillion years ago on the radio – maybe The Splendid Table again – where a long-haul truck driver was commenting on how the vibrations in his cab made the bananas he brought for his own personal meal go too ripe too quickly.  My imagination might have created that memory.  But my imagination is actually probably not that imaginative, so maybe it is true.