Banana Bread

A friend of mine who reads my blog but is not a "follower" (ahem), emailed me today telling me about a banana bread recipe she made and loved.  In fact the words she used were "it turned out perfect", and those claims always get my attention.  There was one caveat to her news, it had to do with an ingredient that's used in the banana bread.  I'll admit that when she mentioned this ingredient, I was surprised, maybe even a little...perplexed...(okay, I was grossed out), however, her claim that it was "perfect" still resonated in my head and I figured, nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?  The ingredient I'm talking about it is...brace yourselves...Miracle Whip.  When it comes to this "dressing", there are 2 camps of people: those that use Miracle Whip and those that use Mayonnaise.  I am a full-fledged member of the Mayonnaise camp.  I cannot be swayed.  And I cannot justify going out and purchasing a jar of Miracle Whip for the 1/2 cup that is called for in this recipe, so I simply substituted mayonnaise. Before you turn your nose up at this, remember that there are many chocolate cake recipes out there that use mayonnaise.  Besides, considering what mayo is comprised of - oil and eggs - this isn't such a giant leap after all. 

This recipe knocks the socks off all the banana bread recipes I've tried, and I've tried a lot. It's list of ingredients is short, it's not finicky, you don't have a lot to clean up afterwards, and you can get it in the oven in about 5 minutes flat. And for the record, it did turn out "perfect". I almost never use that word when describing something that I've baked.  I can almost always find something wrong with it, but alas, I couldn't find one bad thing to say.  Thank you Dominika, this recipe gets filed into my favorites.

Recipe for Banana Bread

(Source: adapted from Kraft website)

1 egg

1/2 c. mayonnaise

1 1/3 c. mashed bananas (approximately 3)

1 1/2 c. flour

1 c. brown sugar (light or dark)

1 t. baking soda

1 t. salt

2/3 c. nuts or chocolate chips (optional) (I omitted)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat egg and dressing and bananas in large bowl with whisk until well blended.  Mix remaining ingredients in separate bowl.  Add to banana mixture and stir till moistened.  Pour into 9x5 greased loaf pan and bake for 1 hour.

Enjoy!