I’ve made a lot of banana baked goods in my time.  I’ve made vegan almond banana bread, banana spelt muffins, baked chocolate banana doughnuts and most recently grain-free peanut butter banana bars.  But my latest banana creation is so good that the Englishman declared it was the best banana bread ever.

I really love baking with spelt, and I think the spelt flour contributed to the success of this banana bread.  Combine that with a touch of peanut butter, some olive oil, honey, pistachios and chocolate chips, and you have a winning combination.  The best part of this bread is that it’s egg-free so you can whip it up in a flash, and if you want to make it vegan, just swap the honey for maple syrup and use dairy-free chocolate chips.  So easy.

I’ve been making this bread almost weekly, and the Englishman takes it to work for mid-afternoon snack.  I also happen to know based on personal experience that this bread is excellent with some ice cream (a la bread pudding).

If pistachios aren’t your thing, pecans also go nicely in this bread.  Or you can just omit the nuts all together.

For now I’m just going to keep declaring this the best banana bread ever until I come up with something else to nab the title.  It’s that good.

The Best Banana Bread Ever (makes 1 9×5 loaf)

Ingredients:

2 ripe bananas

1 1/2 cups spelt flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup olive oil

1/4 cup honey

1 tbsp peanut butter

1/3 cup water

2 tbsp raw pistachios

Handful of chocolate chips (basically as many as you want!)

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350F.  Line a 9×5 loaf pan with parchment or coat with cooking spray.

Mash your bananas in a mixing bowl with a potato masher or a fork.  Add your honey, water, olive oil, peanut butter and vanilla and mix well. In another mixing bowl add your spelt, baking soda, cinnamon and salt and mix.

Pour your wet ingredients into your dry ingredients and continue to mix well.  The dough will be nice and thick (I generally use my stand mixer, but good ol’ fashioned elbow grease works too).Gently fold in your pistachios and chocolate chips and continue to mix until well blended.

Add your mixture to your loaf pan and bake for 50 minutes.

Bake for 50 minutes and remove from the oven and let it cool (if you can wait that long).

Slice, eat, repeat.  The best banana bread ever.