Over the Top Banana Bread

1. Peel only 6 bananas and place in a medium/large microwave safe bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and poke about 4 holes in the plastic for ventilation.
2. Place the covered bowl in the microwave and heat for six minutes exactly on high (please do not skip this step we are trying to extract all the yummy banana juice — you will see why later).
3. While the bananas are heating… In a separate bowl prepare the dry ingredients. Add your flour, salt, and baking soda and whisk until incorporated then set aside.
4. When your microwave has finished counting down, take your bananas and liquid and strain them through a fine mesh strainer into another bowl (you just want the liquid for now – but DO NOT discard the bananas).
5. After you have finally gotten the majority of the liquid from the bananas, add the liquid to a small saucepan and heat on medium-high heat until reduced by about 1/3. This usually takes about 5-10 minutes.
6. Take the bananas from the strainer and add them back into the bowl in which you heated them or another. Then add your brown sugar, vanilla, and eggs.
7. Once the banana “liqueur” juice has reduced to a nice syrup consistency add it to your banana mixture.
8. At this point you can add your walnuts to the banana mixture if you desire. In addition you want to prepare your loaf pan, I personally do not use canola/vegetable spray for my banana loaf pan. Instead I rub some organic coconut oil into the pan.
9. Heat your oven to 320 degrees F if your oven runs hot like mine otherwise heat to 350 degrees F.
10. Take your dry mixture (flour, baking soda, and salt) and add it to the banana mixture. Gently incorporate not to over mix (I usually have some flour streaks left behind which is not a problem).
11. Pour the banana bread mixture into loaf pan and spread evenly.
12. Slice the remaining banana on a diagonal in fairly thin slices, and layer the slices down both sides of the top of the loaf.
13. Sprinkle your loaf with the tablespoon of white sugar (which will give it a pretty gloss and delicious crunch).
14. Place into the preheated oven and cook until a toothpick comes out clean about 40 minutes.
15. Allow to cool in loaf pan for about an hour before inverting onto platter.

Enjoy!