Basic Banana Bread and a Banana Bread Fluffernutter

Sometimes banana bread isn’t satisfying enough on its own. I never ate fluffernutters when I was growing up, but that didn’t stop me from realising that marshmallow and peanut butter would be a great combination with the banana bread I baked this morning. It doesn’t hurt that marshmallows are one of my absolute favorite things, either. The key to the sandwich is to use marshmallow fluff, which is nice and oozy. I don’t usually have this around, so I melt regular marshmallows. The heat seems to work really well with the peanut butter.
The recipe for the bread is really basic. I’ve been making this recipe for a long time and it came about as an amalgamation of many other banana and quickbread recipes that I’ve used. If your bananas are firm, then heat them in the microwave for 30 seconds (unpeeled) to speed up their “ripening”. I usually add the extra spices, but often measure them based on how spicy I feel at the moment. A little bit of nutmeg would be nice in this, too. I should also mention that I sometimes substitute applesauce for the butter, which turns out fine and lets you feel nice and virtuous at breakfast.

Banana Bread
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
2 medium/large bananas, smashed
1 tsp vanilla
(Optional: 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp allspice)

Preheat oven to 375F and grease an 8×4″ loaf pan.
Beat egg and sugars. Add in bananas, vanilla and melted butter and mix well.
Stir in dry ingredients and spices, if using, until just combined.
Pour batter into pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, until tester has a few crumbs, but no batter, clinging to it.
Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to wire rack. Wrapped well, this should keep for several days.
Makes 1 loaf.

The fluffernutter variant shown above was very, very delicious. The warm marshmallow made the peanut butter – I used natural creamy for textural consistency – all melty and nice. And I am of the opinion that you can (a) never go wrong with marshmallows and (b) always have more marshmallow. I suppose that the same thing would go for peanut butter, except that you will inevitably have to interrupt peanut butter eating to wash it down with something.

Ok, I’m digressing. Just so you know, I would eat this again. Everyday, if possible.

Banana Bread Fluffernutter
2 slices banana bread
2 tbsp peanut butter
2 marshmallows, or 4 tbsp Fluff

Place marshmallows on one banana bread slice. Spread other slice with peanut butter.
Microwave marshmallow slice for 20-30 seconds, until marshmallows puff. Top with peanut butter slice.
Eat.
Serves 1.