The Ultimate Banana Bread Recipe

Half the battle of cooking is finding the right recipe to execute. Typically, I rely on Food & Wine or Food Network, but the banana bread recipes that I found seemed blah or too vanilla. I've always been a Smitten Kitchen fan and sure enough I found the perfect recipe.  The flavor profile was true to the recipe's name (Jacked-up Banana Bread): brown sugar was substituted for white sugar and the addition of liquor and ground cloves partnered well with the cinnamon/nutmeg. It was also no fuss to prepare: no mixer necessary.  I'll never look at freckled / bruised bananas the same way again.

Ingredients

 

3 - Ripe Bananas (mashed)
1/3 cup - Melted Salted Butter
3/4 cup - Light Brown Sugar

1 - Egg (beaten)
1 tsp - Vanilla Extract
1 tbsp - Bourbon (I used Licor 43, but Scotch is fine as well)
1 tsp - Baking Soda

1 tsp - Fresh Ground Cinnamon
1/2 tsp - Fresh Ground Nutmeg

1 1/2 cups - Flour

Pinch of salt
Pinch of ground cloves

1) Preheat the oven to 350°F. With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. 

2) Mix in the sugar, egg, vanilla and bourbon, and the spices (nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves). 

3) Sprinkle and mix in the baking soda and salt. 

4) Add the flour slowly and mix. 

5) Pour the mixture into a buttered 5X9 inch loaf pan. 

6) Bake for 50 minutes (or until a toothpick comes out clean) and cool the pan on a rack. Slice with a serrated knife to serve.