I feel like half my life is spent trying to reinvent banana bread.  I guess it’s because I always have overripe bananas lying around.  Last night, I decided to get creative and swirl a blueberry compote throughout my loaf.  It was delicious.

One of my favorite things about banana bread is that, while it’s really kind of a cake, it is full of bananas, so we get to call it “breakfast food.”  Anything made out of sugar, bananas, and butter and still called breakfast food is okay in my book.

You can spread some butter over this banana bread, but it really doesn’t need it.  The bananas combined with the blueberries give it just the right combination of sweet and tart.

This recipe makes two standard 8×4 inch loaves.  I added foil loosely over the top of the loaves after about 30 minutes to keep them from browning too much.

Hope you enjoy.

A rumbly in my tumbly original.

Ingredients:

For the blueberry compote:
1 cup of frozen blueberries
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1 tablespoon cornstarch

For the banana bread:
1/2 cup room temperature butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 medium ripe mashed bananas

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350° and prepare two 8×4 inch loaf pans by spraying with non-stick spray and lining with a parchment paper or foil sling.  Prepare your compote:

Over medium heat, combine the sugar, blueberries, and lemon juice.  Mash until smooth and bubbling around the edges.  (If you have an immersion blender, blending up the mixture will make it nice and smooth, but mashing with a potato masher will also do just fine.)  Remove a couple tablespoons of the blueberry mixture into a small bowl and add the cornstarch.  Mix it into a smooth taste, and put the mixture back into the pot.  Cook over low heat until the mixture is thick, like jam.  Set aside to cool while you prepare the banana bread:

Cream together the butter, eggs, sugar, and vanilla extract until light and fluffy.  Add dry ingredients, and mix until just combined.  Add bananas and mix until just combined.

Spoon 1/4 of the banana bread mixture into each pan.  Top each with 1/2 of the blueberry compote, and then again with the remaining bread mixture.  Use a butter knife to swirl the blueberry mixture throughout.

Bake for 30-35 minutes until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.  Check on loaves about 20 minutes in, and if they are getting to brown on the top, cover with foil and continue baking.

Enjoy!