Banana Molasses Crackle Bread

I have a new favorite banana bread recipe.  I'm not a huge banana bread fan, but I made it because otherwise I would have to actually eat all my bananas before they go brown, a thing I am apparently pathologically incapable of doing.  So the brown bananas go in the freezer until I have 3 or 4, and then I make banana bread.  That bread has seemed a necessary evil, a demonstration of frugal domesticity, a thing I did because otherwise I would have had banana guilt.

But now... now I have changed my tune.  I am remade.  I see banana bread as its own worthy pursuit, a fall breakfast of extraordinary lusciousness, a reason to go buy bananas if there are none in the freezer.

It all started, as so many of my kitchen adventures do, over at Smitten Kitchen, where I saw a recipe for banana bread with millet in it.  And I thought... Millet!  Of Course!  I love millet.  I put it in seed bread and it creates a robust wonderful texture.  I happened to have some in the cupboard for that reason.  If you don't have millet (because, duh, why would you have millet?) then fear not!  It is pretty easy to find in the bulk section of any grocery store with a hippie-ish bent or a comprehensive bulk selection.  Here in the Portland Metro area, that's Whole Foods, New Seasons, Winco, and Freddie's.

Once you've acquired some millet, you can set about making this textured, crackly, rich banana bread.

Bananananana Bread 

Nouns-
3 large overripe bananas
1 egg
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup molasses (or, for a lighter, less intense flavor, half molasses/half corn syrup or half molasses/half honey)
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
pinch of ground cloves (I might have added more than a pinch)
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup uncooked millet

Verbs-
Preheat Oven to 350 and spray a loaf pan with oil or coat it in butter.  Mash bananas, then stir in the egg, oil, brown sugar and molasses.  Then, stir in baking soda, salt and spices.  Fold in flour until just combined, then fold in the millet.  Pour batter into the loaf pan and bake for 45-50 minutes.  Keeps week at room temp in a ziplock bag for about a week, or wrapped tightly in plastic wrap in the freezer it'll keep for months.  I recommend slicing it, toasting it and eating with a smear of butter.

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