Nigella Eats Everything

Finally, finally, after five years of writing this old blog, I bring you peanut butter banana bread.

The fact that this is my first recipe for banana bread is honestly shocking.

Considering that for years I have kept a stash of bananas in my freezer for the entire purpose of a regular supply of banana bread, I really don’t know what I’ve been playing at. I’ve evidently been distracted by charcuterie boards and BLTs. Banana bread is a delicious excuse to leave bananas sitting in the fruit bowl until covered in brown freckles. I don’t know many people who will eat them straight from the skin at that stage, aside from my mum who seemingly does it with grim determination.

Last year, I was trying to find the perfect banana bread recipe for my little recipe e-book I’ve nonchalantly mentioned. I grimaced and groaned and pondered recipes for peanut butter banana bread and also banana cake and banana muffins, and then did so again, when all the results emerged from my oven, all the while with a mouthful of cake and such a serious face of uncertainty, you’d be well-reasoned to think I was debating whether to go to war (while hungry).

There are thousands of delicious banana bread recipes out there which made my task at hand so difficult, and I suppose I’ve been battling that eternal question – does the world need yet another?

But then I made this peanut butter banana bread

This recipe has a touch of pizazz, just a little sparkle to catch your eye, and then I hope I can beckon you closer with my wiles and the promise of peanut, caramel and chocolate.

Having given the game away, there’s no need for a drumroll even though I have at last found the banana bread recipe that I genuinely think deserves one. This peanut butter banana bread is not just a solid bet thanks to the addition of everyone’s favourite creamy nut spread, adding salty smoothness to every bite of cake, but it is also flecked with crunchy peanuts and melted caramel and chocolate.

The secret? Snickers bars.

Folded into the banana bread batter are chunks of Snickers, maybe one or two missing because we all need snacks to keep us going, and once baked, the surface of the loaf is speckled with small puddles of oozing caramel chocolate. Cut yourself a slice and you’ll find molten chocolatey pockets and clusters of peanuts to break up the soft crumb.

All those mouth-watering flavours aside, what of this peanut butter banana bread?

For a cake with one iconic flavour, it’s amazing how many variations you can find. There are banana breads with brown sugars, white sugar, and treacle or syrup like a banana sticky toffee pudding. They can be light and fluffy with cream cheese frosting or spiced, moist and dense with ripe fruit.

This recipe combines brown sugar with white for a paler cake yet is still balanced with caramel notes, plus there’s a dash of vanilla extract. As for the banana, only two are needed, ideally soft and easy to mash. And then the peanut butter, it’s smooth and creamy and the literal icing on the cake for peanut butter banana bread.

Here’s a secret to find optimal mashable bananas (the credit for this trick goes entirely to Olivia Potts!):

If you are making banana bread in a hurry, which I’m sure happens more often than we expect, a great option is to keep some unripe bananas in the freezer. To defrost, cover them in boiling water and then peel away their skins to find super soft and creamy banana beneath.

The recipe is very simple. Into the mashed banana goes melted butter, the sugars, vanilla and eggs. Beat merrily, add flour and baking powder, then all those crumbly pieces of Snickers. Pour and scrape it all into a loaf tin, then swirl dollops of creamy peanut butter across the surface. Sprinkle with a crystalline topping of demerara sugar, then slide it into the hot oven for 50 minutes.

After all my procrastination, I just had to look at that beautifully crinkly surface of this peanut butter banana bread, the sugar sparkling like a prom dress, and knew it had been worth the wait.