I wanted something sweet to eat and easy to make. We had a couple of overripe bananas in our fruit bowl and it inspired me to make banana bread.

I also had some buttermilk to use in the refrigerator. I do not have a tried and true recipe so I went searching on the web for a good recipe which included buttermilk. I noticed right off the recipes tended to fall into two groups, ones that used butter and ones that used oil. The last time made banana bread I used butter and this time I wanted to try oil. It would produce the type of texture I was craving.

I found two recipes that sounded interesting – Starbuck’s Banana Bread on Food Network and Best Ever Banana Bread from All Recipes. There is too much sugar and eggs in the Best Ever recipe and Starbuck’s looked like it would make a little bit larger loaf. I ended up making a variation taking a little bit from each. I also added a bunch of ‘warm’ spices since I’m in a Fall mood and a little vanilla. I think you could use just cinnamon or leave it out. I also used a new oil I found at Coscto – Mediterranean oil – a mix of Canola, olive oil and grapeseed which looks to be a winner for cooking.

Overall, very very happy with the results. I served it with a glass of Moscatel de Setubal which is an excellent dessert wine and buy.

Banana Bread
Makes one 9 inch loaf

1 egg
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/2 vegetable oil
1 cup mashed banana – or two medium
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/8 cup sugar
1 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 – 3/4 tsp of spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cardamon, ginger) (optional)
1/2 cup chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts) (optional)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Spray a 9×5 loaf pan with Pam or other cooking spray.

Mix together egg, buttermilk, oil and banana in a large bowl. Stir in vanilla

Sift together sugar, flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Add to banana oil mixture. Stir in nuts.

Pour into prepared pan and bake for 65-75 minutes.