Looking for the perfect Labor Day dessert to take to your best friend’s barbecue?
I have got you absolutely covered! This is the sweet bread to end all summers! Even though I obviously know it’s still August, I am immensely excited for the Fall season to begin, BUT before that we must celebrate with the best of the best from the season we are about to say sayonara to!
How stunning are those specks of blue and red running throughout the bread from those juicy end of the season berries?!
The Recipe for this end of summer berry bread:
For those of you who have been following me for years and have stayed a true Diamond since, you’ll be very familiar with this recipe! Every themed banana bread I create is concocted from the same beautiful base. From there, I get innovative and creative depending upon what season we’re in, what event I’m catering, or who I am serving. With this particular recipe, perhaps I just wanted to make banana bread because I have overripe bananas and berries that were on their last leg; rather than to become wasteful in this economy. We don’t do that over here on this side of town!! We are resourceful and a visionary! So Diamonds, the lesson here is.. if you have black bananas and berries in the fridge that are too mushy to eat alone, make bread!
banana bread.
The wet ingredients:
- Mash up 2-3 very ripe bananas until they become a soft, thick paste.
- Stir in one stick of melted, salted butter. You can of course use unsalted if you prefer to go that route when baking and add a pinch of salt to the dry mixture when you get to that point. However, I prefer my butter to be salted for everything and anything I make. OR bake.
- Splash in one teaspoon of vanilla extract.
- Crack in two eggs.
- Last to go into the wet ingredients is 1/2 cup of sugar.
The dry ingredients:
- Sift 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda into two cups of flour in a separate bowl from the wet ingredients.
- Once fully combined, fold in the dry ingredients with the wet. Always the dry into the wet!
- When you have a nice, thick batter fold in your strawberries and blueberries. You can also use blackberries and raspberries if they’re you’re favorite, or maybe that’s what you have going to waste in your fridge because your kids are heading back to school and they would rather have granola bars, cheese sticks, and crackers shaped like sea creatures in their lunchboxes!
- Lightly grease a nonstick bread pan and preheat your oven to 350 degrees. If you don’t have a nonstick pan, I would definitely advise you to line your pan with parchment paper just to insure that your work of art is going to come out of that pan; easy peasy! If you are planing on giving this away as a gift to friends, family, or neighbors, I can assure you you’re not going to want your slices to look as if you’ve already dug your hands into this freshly baked bread!
Bake for 50-60 minutes depending on the type of oven you have.
When stabbing the bread with a toothpick to check its doneness, it will come out “clean” once it’s time to be removed from the oven.
The best way to serve this stunning summer banana berry loaf:
Let’s ALA MODE IT!
If you aren’t giving this bread away and it is yours to keep, do not let it cool down! Savor the sweet warmth of the popping berries, and the crumbliness of the bread underneath your favorite ice cold treat. I like ice cream, but I LOVE gelato. I guess it’s the Italian in me, but it could just be because it’s seriously sensational! Aside from that, you can dollop some whipped cream and garnish with more berries as well as a few basil leaves, if you dare. No, no I’m just kidding! The flavor profile of the berry bread, with the cold gelato and the fresh bite of that bright herb is truly an incredible experience that you just can’t miss out on! I won’t allow it!
For whatever reason.. probably because I have a deep love for hot dogs, I end every summer season here on the blog with some sort of themed hot dog post. You can look forward to a hot dog flight coming to you Diamonds as my last post before the fall season really kicks off here on DEEP FRIED DIAMONDS!
Deepfrieddiamonds 
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