Today’s recipe is a wonderfully tasty Caribbean Banana Bread. I used traditional Caribbean flavors such as cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and rum – of course. It is wonderfully moist too made possible by adding coconut oil and evaporated milk. Bananas, the most important ingredient, do a great job keeping the bread moist too.
Most banana bread recipes call for over-ripe bananas in a banana bread, not necessary for this recipe. In fact, over-ripe bananas can interact poorly with the rum, so ripe bananas is what you need.
Caribbean Banana Bread is great with a cup of tea or coffee as a snack. I also like a thick slab with a generous layer of butter. I know it’s terribly decadent but we all plan on carrying a little winter weight for the next couple of months so why not give it a try, just the once.
It took me some time to perfect this recipe. As I mentioned previously, most recipes call for over-ripe bananas but it just didn’t work in this recipe. Using over-ripe bananas resulted in a kinda fermented taste. It wasn’t bad, but it was a little odd tasting.
After testing this recipe for the fourth time I realized I didn’t have any over-ripe bananas. So I used what I had, ripe bananas, and hey-ho the fermented taste was gone.
The addition of banana slices on the top was an added nice touch which I included after searching banana bread images on Google for photo styling ideas. I wish I could remember who created the recipe because it’s a nice touch, it applies even more banana flavor and finishes it off nicely. The final result is a marvelous combination of Caribbean flavors.
Is dark spiced rum necessary for this recipe? Yes – trust me. Any dark spiced rum will do so long as it’s dark and spiced. The rest of the ingredients are easily attainable if not already in your kitchen.
Caribbean Banana Bread is ideal for the holiday season, give this recipe a try and let me know what you think.
Caribbean Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp fine salt
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp dark spiced rum
- 2 sticks unsalted butter
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup melted coconut oil
- 1/4 cup evaporated milk
- 4 ripe bananas mashed
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 1 ripe banana
Equipment & Utensils
- Handheld mixer
- Baking spatula
- 9 x 5 loaf tin
Instructions
- Mix together flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon and set aside.
- Whisk together eggs, vanilla and rum and set aside.
- Using a handheld mixer whisk together butter and 1/2 a cup of sugar until combined, be careful not to over whisk.
- Replace the handheld mixer with a spatula.
- Slowly fold in egg mixture.
- Slowly fold in melted coconut oil, If you need to heat the oil to melt it, allow it to sit and cool for a while first before adding.
- Fold in evaporated milk.
- Fold in half of the flour mixture, then half of the mashed bananas, then repeat.
- Fold in raisins.
- Transfer cake mixture into loaf tin.
- Slice banana into 1/2 inch slices then layer them into two rows.
- Sprinkle with balance of dark brown sugar then place in preheated oven at 380.
- Bake for 45 mins - 1 hour or until you are able to prick with a toothpick and it comes out clean.
