“…of all the recipe choices, banana bread feels the most accessible…it is as easy as mashing your old ass bananas together before stirring in the other ingredients and whacking them in a greased loaf tin.”

– Sadhbh O’Sullivan, “Every Person I Know Is Making Banana Bread In Lockdown,” Refinery29.

Oh, friends. What a strange time we’re living in, huh? The stress and the worry and this suddenly-new way of life – it’s been hard, hasn’t it? I hope you’re all managing to find pockets of happiness and staying well. I had to check out for a little while for a number of reasons, not least because my day job required a lot of hours adapting to working from home while giving kids access to ebooks and digital resources. It was meaningful work and I didn’t mind the long hours at all. I’m also very grateful to be one of the lucky ones to have a job, not to mention one that lets me work from home. But it did mean less (no) time for baking.

A Safe-at-Home Banana Bread

Even aside from the time issue, though, I haven’t had much desire to bake, at least not for fun. My starter Eustacia has come in really handy with the yeast shortage, but aside from some sourdough bread, not much has been happening on the baking front. At first, it seemed oddly frivolous and suddenly too expensive to be whipping up desserts or cakes or frou-frou-y things. And honestly, with the strange food shortages and unreliable ingredients, I’ve been applying most of my ingenuity to cooking regular meals. (I have a new-found appreciation for cabbage and its great versatility.)

For the first time in over a month, this weekend I felt the itch to bake, which coincided with my partner begging me for some banana bread. But with no AP flour to be had, and honey suddenly scarce, I had to get creative with my usual banana bread recipe. Whole wheat flour instead of AP? Check. Maple syrup instead of sugar? Check. Chocolate chips, and a big bag of walnuts in the freezer? Check. Voilà – a new, safe-at-home banana bread is born. (I honestly didn’t know that banana bread was such a thing right now until after making this.)

Substitutions

You can really make all sorts of substitutions with this recipe and you’ll still end up with something tasty. Whole wheat, white whole wheat, even bread or spelt flour, will work if, like me, you’re having trouble finding good ol’ AP. One word of caution when using bread flour – be especially careful not to overmix and develop too much gluten. A few floury streaks in your batter won’t hurt anything. Do, however, be sure to fully incorporate those eggs before adding your dry ingredients.

For spices, you can use cinnamon or cardamom. For sweetness, use honey, or maple syrup, or brown sugar, or a mix of brown and granulated, or just granulated itself. And for chocolate chips, substitute or mix with walnuts, pecans, etc., etc. Or go without the extras. It’s pretty hard to mess this up.

Reality Bakes

As so often happens when necessity is the mother of invention, the end result far exceeded my expectations. This banana bread was wonderful! Different than my usual recipe but equally tasty and with a great rise. The whole wheat flour made it heartier and more bread-like than cakey, and the maple syrup I used made for a less sweet banana bread, which I actually really liked. The extras – the semi-sweet chocolate chips and especially the walnuts – gave a nice bit of richness and crunch but this could easily be made without.