Going bananas: the easiest ever banana bread recipe for the amateur baker

If you, like me, don't particularly relish bananas but buy them anyway because you have been conditioned to consider them as one of those things that taste bad but must be eaten because of the fount of health benefits they offer, you must be familiar with the inevitability of most of them turning into overripe brown mush before you finally get around to eating them. Now, no one—no matter how die-hard a fan you are of the fruit—likes a squishy banana, and disposing one off purely on account of its squashiness is nothing short of sacrilege (Yes, I'm a bit anal about wasting food. I'm the kind of person who eats the same thing for 3 days consecutively). Fortunately, there are many awesome ways—read desserts—to put squishy bananas to use, and none easier and more delicious than the banana bread (except for the banana raspberry frozen yogurt I ate at The Big Chill in Delhi a decade or so ago). 

So, here's presenting my first and very humble attempt at baking something: the delightfully scrumptious banana bread! Now it may seem like a complicated dish considering it takes something despicable like banana and converts in into an amazing dessert you can't have enough of, but, truth be told, this is something you can make with minimal effort and you probably don't even need to make a trip to the market. 

Serves: 3-4

Preparation time: 60 minutes
Cooking time: 45-60 minutes

Ingredients:
2 cups maida/flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 eggs, beaten
3 overripe bananas
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
2 tbsp walnuts, crushed
2-3 pinches of ground cinnamon

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 165°C for 60 minutes.
• Meanwhile, melt the butter slightly and add it to a big mixing bowl along with the sugar. Mix the two well.
• To this, add the bananas and mash them till they become almost completely pulpy. Now add the beaten eggs.
• In a separate bowl, mix the flour and baking soda.
• Add this to the banana/egg/sugar mixture and mix till it acquires a thick paste-like consistency.
• Add the crushed walnuts and cinnamon.
• Now take a loaf tin and grease it lightly from all sides. (I used a round cake tin since I don't have a loaf tin yet and it worked just as well; though I recommend a loaf tin so that it looks like bread and not cake!)
• Transfer the batter into the tin and spread it evenly.
• Put the tin in the oven, setting it to 150-160°C for 60 minutes, and let it bake. Check the progress occasionally to ensure that the bread isn't getting burnt. After about 40-45 minutes, stick a knife in the bread to check how much it has baked. Once the knife comes out dry without any gooey residue, you know that your bread is ready.

Note: The baking time also depends upon the oven. Mine is an old 16-litre one.

Suggested serving: Cut 2 slices, slather on some (or a lot of) Nutella on both. If you really want to go bananas, slip in some chopped banana slices between the two and you have your very own decadent banana-Nutella sandwich!
PS: Since I'm not a big fan of bananas, I don't have the guts to try this, but if you do, let me know how it was :)