I am making this really great banana bread for my Sugarcraft Guild meeting on Monday. It’s got a beautiful, tender crumb from the addition of cream cheese and it also has a lovely orange glaze for the top. It contains a little dark rum in the batter as well as the glaze but feel free to leave it out if you wish. This recipe makes 2 loaves so put one in the freezer for last minute guests or to give as a gift.
BANANA PECAN BREAD WITH ORANGE GLAZE
3/4 C Butter, softened (I always use unsalted butter for baking)
1 8oz pkg Cream Cheese, softened
2 C Sugar
2 Whole eggs
1 Egg yolk
1 1/2 C Mashed ripe bananas (about 3 or 4, depending on the size)
1/2 tsp pure Vanilla
1 Tblsp Dark Rum (optional, but really nice)
2 1/2 C All Purpose flour
1/2 C Whole Wheat flour
3/4 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Baking soda
1/2 tsp Salt
2 cups Chopped pecans, Divided
Cream the butter, cream cheese, and sugar together until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Add the eggs and yolk, beating well after each addition. Beat in the bananas, vanilla and rum.
Sift the flour, baking powder ,baking soda and salt together; gradually add to the butter mixture. Fold in 1 cup of the chopped pecans.
Pour into 2 greased (I use PAM) loaf pans.
Sprinkle each one with 1/2 cup of the reserved pecans. Bake at 350 for 1 to 1 1/4 hours (rotating pans after 30 minutes) or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
Meanwhile, prepare the orange glaze:
Whisk together
1 C confectioners sugar
3 Tbls Orange juice
1 tsp Orange zest
1 tsp Dark Rum (optional)
Drizzle over loaves when they come out of the oven. Cool them for 10 minutes before removing them from the pans to wire racks to cool completely.
