I'd been meaning to make use of some old bananas hanging out on my counter for a while now, and I decided to try to adapt this pumpkin bar recipe from Kelly at Meals for Miles (if you are into reading about evidenced-based nutrition and high-volume running, give her blog a read). I've made her recipe several times, and I love it because it's flavorful, pumpkin, dense, and it comes together super easily. Anything I can make in the evening without waking the baby up is a plus. I figured I could easily swap the pumpkin for banana and change some of the spices around and such, and I'd have a similar recipe going on. Except that it wasn't, not really. What I ended up with instead of a dense bar was a soft bread-like baked good, which, in retrospect, shouldn't have been surprising. What I wanted was banana bar, and what I ended up with was banana bread in an 8 x 8 bar pan.
I was disappointed as I went to taste my first bite, thinking to myself that I'd do better in the next run-through . However, although the texture was not what I'd anticipated, both it and the flavor were excellent. I had a second huge piece just to be extra sure that I wasn't disappointed any longer... The base was almost fluffy and quite moist, and because I liked the addition of the streusel topping so much, it's going to be difficult to stop myself from putting it on everything.Also, although the streusel contains dairy, the bread itself is vegan. I'm going to toy with a streusel topping made with coconut oil in future recipes, so check back if that's something you're interested in.
I let a friend take some of the bread home (because I'm trying to save myself from myself), and she reported back that it was the best banana bread she's ever had. In short, it may not be a great bar, it is some hella good banana bread. Happy accidents, y'all. Give those old bananas some new life.