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How many recipes for banana bread do you think are in existence? I hypothesize that there are no less than 82,926.


Some recipes are generous with the banana mush, some are skimpy. Some use nuts, some use chocolate, some use caramel, some use dried fruit. Some use special flours and some are eggless. And on it goes.

I recently tried two of those 82,926 recipes, one out of curiosity and one out of necessity.

Batch #1 was made from a recipe that had been reviewed by almost 5000 cooks, nearly all of whom gave it a five-star rating. Clearly, I needed to see what all the fuss was about.


Yes, it's a tasty banana bread, but the beauty lies in its simplicity. Ten ingredients (I added cinnamon, walnuts, and raisins) come together in no time flat--the most tedious part is waiting for it to bake.

Batch #2 was made in exactly the same way, but with one glaring difference. Halfway through the process, I discovered that I had no eggs, so I improvised. According to the worldwide spider's nest, there are many, many substitutions for an egg. I picked a flax seed-water combination mostly because I had sincere doubts that it could replicate the function of the egg.


I was right. This batch was much, much, much more flat and dense. Still tasty, of course, but without the desirable fluffy quality of batch #1.

Two down, 82,924 to go.

Last year at this time, I was feasting on some Aloha Dollies. Talk about your fond memories...