Okay, if you don’t like Banana Bread, this post isn’t for you. Come back when I post my Zucchini Loaf later today. If you like nuts in your Banana Bread, well, I hear there are treatment programmes for such things. You can add ’em if you insist, but I wash my hands of the situation.

Here’s the recipe for Banana Bread that I have made for many years. It makes two loaves, because there really isn’t any sense in making one:

1 cup butter or margarine
2 cup granulated sugar
4 eggs
6 mashed bananas

3.5 cups white flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

Dump sugar and margarine into bowl, beat like crazy, add eggs, add bananas, combine dry ingredients and dump in. Mix. Put into two greased pans and throw into the oven at 350F for an hour. It’s a no-brainer.

But those eggs were bothering me. And the sugar made my teeth ache just measuring it out. So one day, when I was out of sugar, I improvised. Then I discovered that I was also down to only one egg. And that I had only veggie oil and no margarine. The new recipe looked like this:

3/4 cup canola oil
2 cup Splenda
1 egg
6 mashed bananas

1.5 cups white flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

And you know what? There was no appreciable difference in taste. A friend of mine who adores banana bread was in raptures over it. She positively screamed at me when I told her about the changes, as she couldn’t handle the idea of it actually being healthier without it tasting like cardboard.

A few notes, to those destined to attempt this trick:

• the Splenda used was the kind that scoops like sugar. For heaven’s sake, don’t use it in anything other than baking. It makes coffee taste like utter crap.
• the eggs were large
• bananas, when they begin to go bad, can be thrown in the freezer in their skins until you wish to make banana bread. Then you need only thaw them out, peel them and use them. Saves throwing out perfectly good fruit and might come in handy when next you have a craving.
• grease the pan. Don’t forget this step, especially if you’re cutting back on fat content.
• you might be able to substitute some applesauce for some of the oil. I haven’t tried it. If you cut the oil substantially, you may need to add another egg or egg-replacer.
• chocolate chips added will negate everything you’ve improved on, as will excess butter spread upon serving.