My Bananas and Stars entry marked the beginning of a mission to find the ultimate banana bread recipe. I had no excuse not to. After all, I had the time, bananas, and, after a trip to Singapore, a large box of baking soda (and walnuts).

In the beginning of this endeavor, I was specifically looking for an exotic recipe with an Asian twist or tropical flare. I tagged a few recipes with desiccated coconut, coconut milk, crushed pineapple, and/or chopped macadamia nuts liberally mixed into the batter, but they were’t exactly what I was hoping to find.

I moved on from those recipes and found a few sinfully rich banana bread recipes with coarsely chopped Reece’s peanut butter cups, ribbons of creamy dulce de leche, or swirls of whipped Nutella and cream cheese gently folded into the batter. I imagined those loaves of bread, with all of their added goodness, baking in my hot oven, but I couldn’t stop going back to the classic banana bread recipes. That’s when I realized that I’m a banana bread purist.

More than a dozen loaves of banana bread later, I discovered this recipe: Best-Ever Banana Bread (honestly!). In addition to its flawless flavor, it has an interesting and unconventional way of marrying basic banana bread ingredients, so it was a perfect find.