Author Notes
A couple weeks back I made Amanda's Chocolate Dump-it Cake for a friend's birthday. Except, I discovered in the making process that I was halfway out of sugar, and the full way out of vanilla. With a couple of quick swaps, the cake became a maple and bourbon chocolate cake. And, no surprise, it was delicious. I was going to make it again, but thinking about maple and bourbon and eying the pile of browning bananas on my counter, I thought banana bread might make an even better destination for these flavors. So, I took my old trusted b-bread recipe, which is my amalgamation of about 15 different recipes from throughout the years, made some tweaks here and there to fit in the maple and bourbon, added a little spelt flour for extra nuttiness and voila! This is your chance to have bourbon at breakfast!
Banana bread tends to veer either towards the crumbly bready side or the oily cakey side, but I'd say this one toes the line right in between. Except, I took a bite of it and decided, what the heck, why not ice the cake (literally)? So I whipped up a maple-bourbon glaze to drizzle over the top as well. Sending it a bit more to the dessert side. But, that should not at all stop you from using it as a breakfast treat nonetheless. (Might I counsel toasting a thick slice, spreading it with peanutbutter, and layering on a couple slices of crispy bacon...) —fiveandspice
Ingredients
- Maple Bourbon Banana Bread
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1 1/2 cups
all purpose flour
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1/2 cup
spelt flour (you can replace this with regular flour, if you wish)
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1 teaspoon
baking powder
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1 teaspoon
baking soda
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1/2 teaspoon
salt
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1/4 cup
granulated sugar
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2
large eggs
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1/2 cup
grade B maple syrup
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3 1/2
overripe bananas, mashed (eat the remaining half with PB as a snack)
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6 tablespoons
unsalted butter, melted and set aside to cool
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2 tablespoons
Bourbon whiskey
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2 tablespoons
creme fraiche
- Maple Bourbon Glaze
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1 tablespoon
grade B maple syrup
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1 tablespoon
bourbon whiskey
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6 tablespoons
(or so) sifted powdered (confectioner's) sugar
Directions
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Preheat your oven to 350F, and butter a standard loaf pan well.
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In a medium bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. (I'm normally not big on sifting, but I think in quick breads it makes a big difference because otherwise they somehow seem to produce renegade baking powder clots that don't taste good at all.)
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In a standing mixer fitted with a whisk, beat together the eggs and sugar until thick and lightened in color, about 5 minutes. Then, with the whisk still whisking, drizzle in the maple syrup and beat until well combined.
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Stir in the mashed banana, the bourbon, the creme fraiche, and finally the melted butter, until fully combined.
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Gently fold in the dry ingredients, just until everything is combined and there are no dry streaks left. DO NOT overmix! Seriously, don’t. I mean it. Overmixing makes banana bread (any quick bread, really) tough, and no one wants that.
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Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake for 45-60 minutes (the actual time will depend totally on your oven, mine only takes 45), until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
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Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then run a knife around the edges to loosen it, take the bread out of the pan, and put on a cooling rack to cool the rest of the way.
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When the bread is cooled, whisk together the glaze ingredients, adding a bit of additional powdered sugar if needed to make it thick, but still very slightly drippy. When you spoon it over the loaf you want it to run very slowly down the sides leaving thick trails. Put a sheet of wax paper under the cooling rack where the loaf is and drizzle the glaze over the bread. Allow the glaze to harden. Then, slice and eat!
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