Almond Butter Banana Bread

Pisces season is a strange time. It seems like every year there is, without fail, some major change in my life during the February-March period. This year, however (and I don't want to jinx it), I'm manifesting that whatever change that happens will be a positive one. I can definitely sense my life getting back together after a rather turbulent couple months. I do not regret my decision to quit my job one bit - I find that I'm more directed and balanced in life focusing primarily on my studies. Of course, I also have time to pursue my hobbies. This weekend, I got out and exercised, something I can't remember the last time I did in a healthy manner. I went for a wonderful walk along the Boulder Creek trail on Saturday, where I made it all the way to the western periphery of the city; on Sunday I stationary biked at the Rec Center for an hour while listening to Renaissance, and reached a high speed of 140 which I will probably never shut up about. Of course, I have a lot more time to bake. I don't know why, but I feel so calm and in my element whenever I bake. Maybe it's just the perfect balance of methodical and creative. I truly feel like this is what I am meant to be doing in life right now - learning and getting outside and baking.

I had originally planned on making the Almond Butter Banana Bread from Dessert Person as my first recipe in this project. During the period when I wasn't eating that much, my mom so lovingly sent me a package of convenient, easy to prepare, nutritious foods which included, among other things, almond butter. "You need to get good fat into you," she said. I was scared of putting any type of fat into my body, so I decided to wait on it. But I think it's a testament to my growth that now I can come back to that jar and fully embrace it. I got all the ingredients for the banana bread about a week ago, but alas, my bananas needed to ripen. I tried the old paper bag trick, but it still took about a full week until the bananas were blackened, squishy, and ready to go.

I really have never liked bananas (everyone who knows me well knows this), but I have always loved banana bread. I know this seems counterintuitive, but I bet there are a lot of people who can back me up on this. To be honest, banana bread might just be one of the most crowd-pleasing baked goods there are - I've never met anyone who doesn't like it (or maybe I just haven't asked). To me, bananas are meant to be baked with rather than eaten out of hand. There's a special transformation happens as a banana ripens - its starches and sugars break down and develop aromas and flavors that are so deeply vanilla-y and custardy. A good banana bread should embrace that transformation. It shouldn't hide its titular ingredient, but it also shouldn't taste like the-banana-that-you-eat-for-breakfast. 

Knowing Claire, this is not a basic banana bread recipe. There are a few special touches - almond butter, of course, but also coconut oil as the primary fat, as well as a scant 1/4 teaspoon of cardamom. This is a very almond-forward cake (let's face it, banana "bread" is actually cake) - almond butter gets both incorporated into the batter and combined with sugar and coconut oil for a topping that gets swirled on before baking. In addition, roasted salted almonds are coarsely chopped and folded into the batter. I am very pro-nuts in everything, and I think that if you aren't, you need to grow up. I've usually seen walnuts in banana bread, and occasionally pecans, so I thought almonds were a nice switch from that. 

The big appeal of banana bread is that it's an insanely easy, one-bowl, dump-it-all-together type of cake. In theory, this recipe does not require any type of fancy equipment, but because my whisk got annihilated in the dishwasher the other day (I think I may have already mentioned that), I had to pull out the hand mixer. That being said, I would still class this as the easiest recipe I've made thus far (which is saying a lot, because all three recipes I have made at this point have been very easy). This is also a good time to add a quick disclaimer that because I am baking in a high altitude environment, I have to make a few adjustments to the measurements in recipes and may sometimes achieve different results than one would at sea level. This is a little stressful, because it can often be difficult to tell when I've actually messed up from when the recipe just doesn't translate to my environment. For example, I got a slightly fluffier, looser crumb on this cake than what I was looking for. I really wanted neat, tight slices that would hold together, but the end result was fairly delicate. I'm not sure if I over-mixed, or if I should've made more altitude-related adjustments to help with the structure of the cake, like reducing the sugar or increasing the oven temperature, or if that's just how the cake is supposed to turn out. I can't wait to live somewhere low-lying next year and not have to worry about all these variables.

That being said, this was nonetheless a very good banana bread recipe. The ripe bananas lent a very moist but decidedly cakey texture and sweet, custardy, almost caramel-y flavor. The almonds and almond butter lend a really delicious nutty, toasty, savory element that gives the whole thing a very delicious sweet-and-salty, almost peanut butter cup vibe. I also really liked the visual that the swirled almond butter on top created - let's be honest, most banana bread looks rather plain, so I think it's just one of those steps that makes this recipe a little bit more special. I know nuts in banana bread is controversial, and Claire marks them as optional in the recipe, but I really highly recommend adding them in. They add a really nice textural element and amplify that nutty flavor. My biggest critique is that some of the ingredients didn't come through in the final product as much as I had hoped. I couldn't really detect any cardamom, and I feel like the coconut oil also didn't really add anything distinct that would justify its inclusion over your cheaper, run-of-the-mill neutral oil. It's a bit of a missed opportunity in my opinion, because having more of that coconut flavor would really take it into Almond Joy territory, which would've been sublime. 

All in all, this is one of the better banana breads I've had - not necessarily the banana bread (I'll have to try a few more recipes to decide that), but definitely one I'd make again, perhaps with a few tweaks. Like the other two recipes I've made so far, this isn't an extremely sweet cake, so it's ideal for a breakfast or snack. 

Overall Rating: 8/10

Now, because these are my posts, and I can do whatever I want, I am leaving you with "A&W" by Lana del Rey because it absolutely has a chokehold on me right now, and it might just be among my top five Lana songs ever. Honestly, it's peak banana bread-making music for me, which is probably the only time you will hear someone describe this song as being that. This ending section may evolve into a more general "things I am enjoying in life right now", but I promise that if I continue to post music, it will be music that actually makes sense to be posting on a baking blog.