Last week we celebrated National Banana Bread Day. And national pancake day... and tortilla day... margarita day... pistachio day and kahlua day. Oh and then we celebrated pancake day again this week (thanks, IHOP). It seems that every food has its own holiday lately. Tomorrow is banana cream pie day. So being late to banana bread day, and early to banana cream pie day, I'll stick to the banana theme and combine two familiar banana desserts - bananas foster and banana bread.
It's hard to believe this recipe comes from Cooking Light. In fact most of the decadent banana bread recipes I've made lately come from the magazine. What sets this bread apart from the rest is the rum. The rum is sauteed with butter, brown sugar and bananas (almost like a traditional bananas foster, minus the flame). The original recipe called for a simple butter rum glaze, but I kicked it up a bit and added some vanilla and cinnamon. I did this partly to make it a little less boozy and well, because you can never have too much vanilla or cinnamon. It would be hard to eat just one slice of this bread at a time, but at only 194 calories per slice, go ahead... eat the whole loaf.
Bananas Foster Bread with Cinnamon Butter Rum Glaze
adapted from Cooking Light
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana
1 cup packed brown sugar, divided
5 tablespoons butter, melted
3 tablespoons dark rum
1/3 cup plain fat-free yogurt (I used greek yogurt)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
For the glaze:
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1 tablespoon dark rum (you could use butter rum extract if you prefer not to use rum)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup powdered sugar
Preheat oven to 350. Spray a loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray.
In a small saucepan, combine melted butter, 1/2 cup brown sugar, mashed bananas and rum. Heat over medium until the mixture is bubbling, thickened and dark brown. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
In a stand mixer, combine eggs, remaining 1/2 cup brown sugar, yogurt and vanilla. When the banana mixture has cooled, add this to the egg mixture and mix until combined.
In a medium whisk together the flour, flax, cinnamon, allspice and baking powder. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until just combined.
Pour the batter into the loaf pan. Bake 55-60 minutes. Allow to cool 10 minutes in the pan before inverting the bread from the pan to cool on a wire rack.
For the glaze:
In a small bowl, whisk together melted butter, powdered sugar, rum, cinnamon and vanilla. Drizzle over the loaf while it's still warm.
