If you are a banana bread purist, read no further.

Frankly, I am not a fan of banana bread. However, with the addition of toasted nuts and ginger, banana bread can transcend its humble beginnings.

Some notes on making quick breads:

• You can easily take a quick bread recipe (banana bread, zucchini bread, etc.) and change it up by adding spices, nuts, fruits, and so on.
• Freshly grind spices to make their flavors more noticeable.
• Quickly toast nuts to bring out their flavors before adding them to the bread.
• If your bread comes out a little dry, serve with honey butter! (Whip together softened butter and honey.)

Be sure that you use overripe bananas:

Here is my banana bread recipe:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine and set aside:

1 ½ c unbleached all-purpose flour

1 t baking soda

1 t salt 

In a large bowl, blend together in this order:

1/3 c olive oil

½ c packed brown sugar

3 ripe bananas, mashed

2 eggs

1/3 c whole milk

 Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.

Fold in

handful of pecan or walnut pieces

handful of chopped crystalized ginger

Bake for an hour.