JERUSALEM BANANA BREAD ADVENTURE

My mom enjoys traveling. She travels for many reasons, including work, weddings, retreats, and conferences. She’s the most frequent traveler in my family. This time, she was traveling to Israel for a christian pilgrimage. Israel, being a land of significant religious importance, attracts many pilgrims from around the world, Christians wishing to partake in religious tours or events. Mom had prepared for her journey well in advance, ensuring all her travel documents were in order a week before her departure. She had received her travel passport, yellow card and necessary health certificates, and was looking forward to exploring the holy sites and participating in religious events during her tour.

My Jerusalem Treasured Souvenir 

It was the christmas holiday, and she was to leave a few days before christmas. That would be the very first christmas we’d celebrate without my mom being around. My Dad has also been to Israel, but he went with his study group, a group of 10 school buddies. I was much younger then and can barely remember all the details. The only thing I remembered were the gifts I and my sister received. An orange colored scarf and a blue shirt, written on it was “Someone who loves me so much went to Jerusalem and got me this T-shirt.” I would only wear that T-shirt on very special occasions, that was to show how much I treasured it.

Market View in Bethlehem

Grandma’s Recipe Revived

My mom doesn’t like to eat out, especially when she’s traveling to a new place. She loves homemade meals, so she likes to cook and pack her meals. We[My sister, Dad, and I] decided to prepare a special treat that my mom could take along with her for her trip. She loves freshly baked bread so we settled on the idea of making her homemade banana bread.

Up and out

So we set out to the market to get the ingredients. 

The market was crowded, with so many people buying and selling and preparing for christmas. We bought the ingredients for our banana bread. Sugar, Margarine, Eggs, Baking soda, four medium-sized overripe bananas, flour, yogurt, vanilla extract flavor, Exotic flavors, and nuts (Nuts are discretional); even if you don’t have them, you’ll still get an amazing result; the additional nut makes it Banana Nut Bread😉. 

PS: Chocolate chips might also be added to the banana bread. If you don’t get overripe bananas and your bananas are a bit green, you could bake them for a while to get them overripe. 

The mix and miracle

The moist homemade banana bread was originally my grandma’s recipe🤭. This banana bread recipe is so simple anyone can make it. She’s an amazing cook, who makes classic banana bread. It wasn’t eggless like the trend is now. But it was SO moist and it tasted like it was full of bananas.

This banana bread is one of my favorite desserts, and I always look forward to when it’s made. While I’d love to take credit for the recipe, it comes from our family’s old cookbooks. If you want truly excellent banana bread, homemade is the way to go – nothing store-bought can compare. Fortunately, this recipe is simple and forgiving, making it easy for anyone to create a delicious loaf at home.

• Put all dry ingredients in one bowl, and mix
• Use a hand mixer to blend the remaining ingredients in another bowl. 
• Fold two bowls together and pour into your loaf pan
• Bake

When making banana bread, it’s crucial to use overripe bananas – those that are beyond yellow with significant bruising. This ensures a moist and sweet loaf.

Overripe Bananas

Storage tip: Wrap the cooled bread tightly in aluminum foil. It can be kept on the kitchen counter for up to a week, though it’s likely to be eaten much sooner.

For larger gatherings, consider doubling the recipe. To achieve a lighter batter, add ½ cup of sour milk or yogurt.

The ideal banana bread texture is moist and dense due to the high banana content. As it cools, the exterior should become soft and slightly crumbly.

Preparation for the Holy Land’s Adventure 

My sister and I were more excited about mom traveling than she was, probably because we’ve always opted for going for a family pilgrimage together since dad went first, could be the snow or just wanting to celebrate Christmas in the holy land where Christ was born, grew and preached the gospel, getting to see the places we had only read about in the Bible during Sunday school. We helped her pack everything she needed, especially warm clothes [because it’s usually cold during that time of the year] We even made a list of souvenirs we hoped she would get for us. 

Early the next day, we wrapped the banana bread loaf and packaged it in a bakery box for her, so she could have them on her way to the airport and before her departure. She absolutely loved it.

Christmas At Grandma’s 

With mom in Jerusalem, it was just us three at home. On Christmas day, dad purchased quails [they are known for their delicate and nutritious eggs, commonly used in cooking and baking]. In a bid to fry them dry, sadly, they got burnt. It was a Christmas ‘disaster’.

It was too late to prepare anything else, so we headed to church. After Christmas service, instead of celebrating at home with roasted quails, we decided to go to my grandma’s house. There was still some banana bread left over, so we packed it along. As we arrived at her house, my uncles, aunts, and cousins were already there, they came to celebrate Christmas with our grandma. Not only did she like the banana bread we brought her, but so did everyone else. She was very proud that we used her recipe to prepare it. “Like the baobab tree, which lives for thousands of years, old recipes endure and continue to nourish people across generations,” according to her. She was trying to communicate the idea that her recipes are more than simply cooking instructions; they are a type of tradition that would stay relevant and important through time. My grandma has a great sense of humor that we all enjoy, and she never misses an opportunity to share her wise words with us. She enjoys the holidays the best as we get to spend more time with her and having everyone around was really enjoyable.

Footnote

Meltinglemondrop welcomes new contributor Barko into the team. Delighted to have her share stories from her home and kitchen. Adding a small verse from a very different book which maybe familiar with a few who are not familiar with Christmas or Christian traditions and yet captures perhaps a whiff of the same goodful classical romance and nostalgia. 🙂

We visited old markets

selling ancient glories

from Ozymandian dreams

we’d dress up in furs

and fancy hats

and have dinners at long tables

until kindly asked to leave

and then to some cafe somewhere

in a place that didn’t matter

drinking rose

and eating spiced olives

until we’d stumble to our beds

this was our life

everything that mattered

everything that

would ever matter

and we lived each day

as a season of our spring.

-Atticus

BANANA BREAD

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Serves: 8 Prep Time: 20 Minutes Cooking Time: 1 Hour

Ingredients

• 125g Margarine
• 1 cup white granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 4 medium overripe bananas, mashed
• 1 tablespoon vanilla/banana flavor
• 2½ cups flour
• 1½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup of nut
• ½ cup yogurt

Instructions

• Preheat the oven 
• With a hand blender mix butter and sugar together till it’s fluffy. Add eggs, vanilla flavor and mix very well.
• Add in the mashed banana
• In a separate bowl, mix in flour, baking soda and salt.
• Fold in ingredients of the first bowl with the second bowl. Do not over mix.
• Pour in a well-greased and floured pan
• Bake for 1 hour, or until you can insert a toothpick and it comes out clean.
• Let cool for at least 10 minutes before removing from the pan.

JERUSALEM BANANA BREAD ADVENTURE was last modified: March 26th, 2025 by BARKO

Notes

Alternatively, in regions without access to conventional ovens, a local baking method can be used. You can use a large pot on a stove as a makeshift oven. The bread pan is placed inside the pot, which is then covered, allowing the trapped heat to bake the contents.