What do you do when you are forced to go out of town and leave a bunch of bananas sitting at home without you?
You have a whole weekend away to think about making a fabulous banana bread when you get home, of course!
As I predicted, I came home to several very spotted, just-past-ripe bananas, and knew I would make a banana bread. I've been making my mom's banana bread for years, which is perfect and infallible, just like Mom herself (really, it's the best banana bread I've ever had or ever will have). But I wanted to try making one that was a little more...exotic.
And, as it turned out, butt-ugly.
My go-to wonder-product of the 60's, PAM spray, failed me for the first time ever when I turned my banana bread out onto my cutting board, and only the top 2/3 of the loaf came out. The rest clung to the bottom of the loaf pan. That of course has no effect on the taste, but it doesn't make for very pretty pictures (which I why I only have one sad, mediocre photo of this lip-smackingly quirky banana bread).
Check out the original recipe for much more beautiful photos. The only modification I made to the original recipe was to leave out the bourbon (didn't have any, now that Ross no longer lives with me), and to replace the cloves (which I also didn't have) with cumin (which I always have on hand). I've seen cumin in quickbread recipes before, and I thought it would go nicely with the banana and cherry flavors - which, fortunately, it did!
The banana bread was moist and chock-full of yummy banana chunks and big, juicy cherries. The cumin and the rest of the spices are subtle, but their flavors are just enough to make you think that this banana bread has a little somethin' somethin' special going on. I'd love to try this with other spice and dried fruit combinations - cardamom and apricot comes to mind.
Try it yourself - hopefully you'll have more luck getting it out of the pan than I did! (Although I had no problem having a big piece for breakfast with my yogurt.)
Thanks for reading! More soon...
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