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Spiced Rum Banana Bread

Spiced Rum Banana Bread
Though there are all kinds of delicious goodies you can make with bananas and it is hard to pick a favorite. The two that I make most often – that I could probably claim as my favorites – are banana bread and bananas foster. I’ve made all kinds of variations on banana bread over the years and I decided to make one inspired by bananas foster, infusing the quick bread with the butter, rum and brown sugar that make up the sauce for that classic banana dessert.

The banana bread is made with plenty of brown sugar and a few dashes of cinnamon and allspice, both of which go well with bananas. I added spiced rum to the mix to augment the spices (Costco sells a great and very reasonably priced spiced rum) and I was pretty generous with it. Although there is quite a bit of rum in the bread, the finished loaf isn’t going to taste too boozy. Like vanilla extract, the vast majority of the alcohol will cook of during baking, leaving you with a mild rum flavor instead of a cocktail-like bread. While I liked spice rum in here, you’ll get a more pronounced rum flavor if you choose to use a dark rum, such as Meyers.

The finished bread is wonderfully moist and has a fantastic combination of flavors supporting the bananas, which are still the star. I topped my loaf with a very generous amount of spiced sugar, which formed a kind of crust on top of the bread and added some nice textural contrast to each piece. The bread keeps very well and can be enjoyed over the course of several days if stored in an airtight container. Feel free to serve it at brunch or, as a nod to traditional bananas foster, heat it up and top it with some vanilla ice cream.

Spiced Rum Banana Bread
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground allspice
3 medium, ripe bananas (about 1 1/4 cups, mashed)
1/3 cup butter, melted and cooled
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup spiced rum
topping: 2 tbsp coarse sugar + 1/2 tsp cinnamon + pinch allspice

Preheat oven to 375F. Grease and flour a 9×5-inch loaf pan.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices .
In a large bowl, mash the banana. Add in melted butter, sugars, egg and vanilla extract and whisk until well-combined. Stir in half of the flour mixture, followed by the rum. Stir in the remaining flour mixture and mix only until no streaks of dry ingredients are visible. Pour into prepared loaf pan.
Whisk together topping ingredients in a small bowl. Sprinkle over the top of the banana bread.
Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the top of the bread springs back when lightly pressed.
Allow loaf to cool in the pan for at least 15 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 1 loaf.

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