Banana Bread Taste Off

On the first day of Thanksgiving break, I had several bananas that needed to be used or frozen, so I decided to do a banana bread taste off with my kids. That morning, my friend Julie and I had been talking about banana bread recipes, and that's what inspired this adventure. I thought... how do you really know what banana recipe you want to be devoted to if you don't try a few side by side?

Thus began my search for three recipes to try.

The first recipe I chose was Perfect Buttermilk Banana Bread from Mel's Kitchen Cafe. This has been my go to recipe for years, so it was a no brainer. This banana bread is unique in that the banana flecks don't turn brown. Mel says this is because the recipe has very little baking soda (interesting tid bit). 

For the next two recipes, I wanted to make sure there were some distinct differences. A lot of the banana bread recipes I looked at were very similar - they all had the same ingredients but with slightly different quantities (such as 1 tsp baking soda vs 3/4 tsp baking soda). 

For the second recipe, I chose The Best Classic Banana Bread from Our Best Bites. It seemed to be just as advertised: classic (other than it said to sprinkle the bread with brown sugar before baking, which I'm sure is fabulous, but in order to focus on the trueness of the banana breads, I didn't do any add-ons for any of the loaves I baked for this taste off. Especially with my children as judges. They'd have been too easily swayed by the additional sugar). 

For the third recipe, I chose The Best Banana Bread from the Food Network. This one was different from the other two in that it called for cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar (hence the darker coloring). 

Normally, I love to add walnuts and/or chocolate chips to my banana bread, but like I said, I eliminated such frivolities for this taste test so we could focus on the essence of the banana bread. 

The batters ready to bake

After the breads baked and cooled, I made each of my kids a sampler plate. I was surprised when they agreed unanimously on their favorite one... recipe number two: The Best Classic Banana Bread from Our Best Bites (even without the brown sugar topping). 

I ended up taking sampler plates to my in-laws as well so I could get some perspective from adult palates. They both chose the same one as my kids!

Then when Scotty got home, I had him taste test the breads, and he was the lone wolf who chose recipe number 3. 

I tried them all, too, of course, and in my opinion, 1 & 2 tie, and 3 is a nice runner-up. In all honesty, I would eat any of the three without complaint. 

Scotty, my in-laws, and I agreed that the degree to which we liked one recipe over the other was really miniscule. There was no landslide in this taste off, but the reigning winner for now is Our Best Bites by just a fraction.