Occasional Indulgences Handbook: Banana Split Banana Bread

So, this is basically banana bread that has banana split stuff in it. It's pretty much banana bread with pineapple, cherries, strawberry jam, chocolate chips, and nuts.

I'm a genius yol. Did I never tell you about 'yol'? It's a great story. I should tell you on Thursday.

This is super good banana bread. Like, out of this world awesome.

It was a bit harder than usual banana bread, but I used a harder recipe. I used the Best Ever Banana Bread from Sally's Baking Addiction for my base.

It's a really good banana bread, but it's a little harder than others. Part of what makes it really soft is it uses brown sugar instead of white sugar. That makes it darker.

When I took it out of the oven, I just about died. It looked awful! It wasn't a sunny beautiful color. It looked burnt, but still gooey. Since this was the first recipe with my new camera, I wanted it to look awesome. It wasn't looking awesome!

But then I tasted it.

And it was all better.

It was so good! The top was crunchy/sweet, it was moist, it melted in my mouth.

It was worth the effort. But if I did make it again, I would probably use cake-mix banana bread as a base (recipe coming soon!) because that makes it prettier and easier.

So, this is really good because it has a good base, but then I made it even better. All the add ins make the perfect texture, soft with occasional crunch.

The add ins were: pineapple tidbits, maraschino cherries, chocolate chips, nuts, and strawberry jam.

So, the nuts. I'm not a huge fan of banana nut bread, but I loved the nuts in here. In nut breads, they usually have pecans or walnuts, not my fave. I added a mixture of peanuts and almonds, mostly peanuts.
Guess what. I like banana nut bread. It just has to have peanuts! It was so good, salty, but not too much, with the perfect crunch, and small enough that it didn't get stuck in my braces.

Now. The jam. I didn't mix it in, because that would make it really ugly, and affect the flavor. I swirled it in on top, see?

Anywho, this bread is out of this world good! Now, here's the recipe so you can make it yourself!

Banana Split Bread
Banana bread with banana split add ins, full of texture and flavor, this is a recipe your family will love!
Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar, loosely packed
2 eggs
1/3 cup greek yogurt or sour cream
2 cups mashed bananas (4 bananas), very ripe
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup nuts
1/4 cup strawberry jam
3/4 cup cherries
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1/3 cup pineapple tidbits
*optional* 1 scoop vanilla ice cream

Directions:

Adjust oven rack to the lower 3rd position and preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease two 8x4 loaf pans. Set aside
Using a hand-held or stand mixer, cream together butter and brown sugar on medium speed for 3 minutes. While it's mixing, mash the bananas.
On medium speed individually add the eggs, beating well after each addition. Beat in yogurt, mashed bananas, ice cream (if desired) and vanilla on medium speed for 1 minute. Remove the bowl from mixer.
In a large bowl, toss the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon together until combined. Using a large spoon or rubber spatula, slowly mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Slowly stir everything together until the flour pockets are gone. Do not overmix.
Fold in the nuts, cherries, pineapple, chocolate chips. Pour batter into the pan. Drop spoonfuls of strawberry jam on top. Drag a knife across in different directions to create swirls. Bake for 55 - 60 minutes. It's done when you can stick a toothpick in the middle and have it come out clean. Let the bread cool completely in the pan, then take it out and serve.

Notes: I was going to add ice cream, but didn't have any. It will probably turn out fine if you do, but I haven't actually done it. Your bananas have to be really ripe, not like the bananas in my photos. You want them almost black. This bread is a little trickier than most, so feel free to use a different base with all the add ins.

I was super excited for this photo shoot. And I am so happy that I can watermark my photos now! See the occasional indulgences handbook in the corners?

This photo-shoot was a little more difficult. It was really windy and so I had to have 2 of my brothers and sisters help me. You can kind of see them on the edges of photos.