Bourbon Banana Bread

Oh baby! No playing around here, there is some serious taste in this banana bread and I urge you to run home and make it immediately! I have made this bread before under the title Boozy Banana's Foster Bread but I added a few ingredients that I believe really take it over the top. I confess that the caramel drizzle was an after-thought. I had some in the fridge and thought, why not. If you really want to shoot the taste into the stratosphere, make your own salted caramel, drizzle it, taste it and then call your mother and thank her for bringing you into a world that allows for the amazing pleasure that comes from delicious food. I personally felt the need to do just that a few weekends ago when I tasted duck fat fries for the first time...but that is a different post.

Another point on this bread is that you will notice that these little darlings are in small loaves. I am now absolutely enamored with small loaf pans as I have found that they cook the bread more evenly, they are easier to remove, they are fantastic for storing, easy to give as gifts, (I give this bread out a lot and it is my way of saying, I think you are really neat!). Anyway, so the list of benefits of cooking small versus the cumbersome big loaf that never cooks all the way through is very long. With that, go forth and bake! Enjoy! AJ

3 to 4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted salted butter
3/4 cup light brown sugar packed
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 tablespoons bourbon
1 teaspoon baking soda
Big pinch of kosher salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
Pinch of Allspice
Pinch of ground cloves
1 1/2 cups and two tablespoons of flour

Brown Sugar Topping:

5 tablespoons salted butter cold and diced
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of Kosher salt
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose white flour

Preheat the oven to 350°F. With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, vanilla and rum, then the spices. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for one hour to one hour and ten minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.