I am a big fan of lifestyle vlogger Christine from the YouTube channel Frugal Fit Mom; I enjoy her charisma and quirky behaviour while creating various recipes and doing things for and with her family.

Christine has made this Banana Bread many times over the years on her channel, and I finally decided to try it for myself. It’s a super-basic recipe, and not dissimilar to my previous attempts to make various types of banana breads and muffins over the past several years (see here, here, here and here). I made the recipe exactly as stated (which as you can imagine was hard for me, since I LOVE TO TINKER), but I really wanted to try this recipe on its merits, and then I can start fiddling with it once I know what it tastes like as-is. The only thing I didn’t do was add the optional chopped nuts, as my spouse is not a fan. In addition, I needed to bake mine for about 75 minutes to bake all the way through, as I had placed my loaf pan on a tray to reduce the likelihood of burning it on the bottom, but the trade-off to doing this is that it takes longer to complete baking.

This recipe is absolutely perfect for using up those sad, black bananas you were considering pitching in the bin, but it also lends itself well to a multitude of substitutions; not only the aforementioned chopped nuts (sooo many choices there), but also chocolate chips of several flavours (dark or milk chocolate, butterscotch, peanut butter, salted caramel, or white chocolate), mini M&M’s, mini marshmallows, or dollops of jam; for spices, try cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, star anise or cloves; for other fruits try a tropical pineapple, mango or coconut combo, or maybe any berry you have available that you think would work well with bananas, or maybe stone fruits such as chopped peaches, nectarines, or plums. All of these enhancements will make a different flavour profile, some subtle and some quite distinctive.

Banana Bread from Frugal Fit Mom

YIELD: 1 standard loaf | PREP: 10 mins | BAKE: 50-60 mins

• 1 cup of sugar
• 1/2 cup softened butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 3 bananas, mashed
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla
• 1/2 cup of chopped nuts (optional)

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Cream sugar and butter. And eggs and beat well.
3. Add flour, baking soda, and salt and mix until just combined.
4. Add bananas, vanilla, and nuts if using. Mix one more time.
5. Pour into greased loaf pan and bake for 50-60 minutes.

Review: According to my hubby, a Banana Bread Connoisseur, the resulting loaf was crunchy on the outside (mainly because I had to bake it for so long, but that can be mitigated by putting it in a Ziploc bag once it’s completely cooled). It’s very banana-y and a good, solid, standard banana bread recipe. This may end up being my go-to banana bread base from now on, so two thumbs up from me! Try this recipe as-is, or with any of the substitutions mentioned above that sound good to you.

I would imagine that this bread will keep well at room temperature or refrigerated for 3-4 days well-wrapped, or wrapped and frozen for several months.