Oh, what a week.  My in-laws have been visiting, my husband working long hours, and we’ve all been trying to recover from a never-ending cold.  Not much has been done on the cooking or knitting front sadly.  This week our extended, gorgeous autumn has finally ended.  All the ski lifts closed down this past weekend, but the weather prevented us from even trying for one last ride.  The Cloud permanently has descended, the temperature plummeted and the rain started.  Yesterday it even snowed for a bit in the morning, but as the ground is still “warm” none of it stuck. 

The one thing that I managed to accomplish though was creating a killer banana bread!  I’ve been on a spiced rum and coconut kick lately – perhaps it’s the cool weather producing wishful thinking and dreams of being in the Caribbean.  In any case, I wanted a way to use up the bananas that I bought my daughter, Beryl, at her insistence the previous weekend and she never ate.  I also wanted to try out my new bread loaf pan that I purchased this week, too.  So – Banana Bread! With rum! 

This is a super simple recipe that you can easily make in a bowl with a sturdy whisk, but I prefer to use my mixer because I have one.  The recipe doesn’t require anything other than the one bowl, so clean-up is also easy (always a bonus!).  Just lay out all your ingredients ahead of time, and it will come together quickly: bananas, butter, baking soda, salt, raw sugar (extra fine), egg, all-purpose flour, dried, shredded coconut, spiced rum and dark brown sugar.

It’s basically smooshing the bananas then chucking in one ingredient after the other in the bowl and mixing.  Just add the flour last and don’t over mix.  This may be a “bread”, but you want the texture more cake-like.  Over-working the mixture after the flour is added will develop the gluten in the flour and giver you a more chewy texture.  The coconut flakes already give a bit more texture than a “normal” banana bread, so proceed with caution!  My bread pan is non-stick, so I didn’t even have to butter the pan, but if your’s isn’t, definitely butter the pan ahead of time, otherwise you won’t get your bread out!

While the bread was baking, I decided to also make a thick, gooey glaze for the top of it.  Using the dark brown sugar for depth and more spiced rum for yumminess, I made a sort-of caramel sauce.  After the bread was cool enough to come out of the pan, I placed it on a wire rack over a lined baking sheet.  When the sauce has cooled a bit and thick, just pour it over.  Let the bread cool completely before slicing.

As for the leftover sauce that collected on the pan?  Dip apple slices in it.  Wow.