Jacked Up Banana Bread

I am a bit disorganized when it comes to this blog.  I try to keep track of my recipes my leaving them open on my iPad (I mostly use the Internet to find new recipes), but occasionally I will pick up my tablet and open Safari only to find Craig's List advertisements for four-wheelers or unidentifiable car parts, or Yahoo Fantasy Sports.  Grrrrrr.

To combat this problem, I also take pictures of all my food (terrible ones on my phone but don't judge me), and to see what I need to blog next, I flip through my photo album.  Once I find the next food photo, I track down my recipe and blog it.

The problem with this strategy is that, if by chance I ever forget to take a picture, I may or may not forget to blog about it.  There's a chance I'll stumble upon the recipe on my iPad and remember, but as I said, sometimes the recipe goes MIA and then I am screwed.

Well guess what happened to this poor banana bread?  It got forgotten.  I don't even remember when I made it but I have a bad feeling that it was a long, long time ago.  I guess I didn't take a picture, but luckily a long lost tab on Safari brought up this recipe when I was on my iPad earlier this week, and it all came rushing back to me: the spotty brown bananas languishing on the counter, my mother begging me for a banana bread, and I, wanting to try something new rather than your average bland old banana bread.  Thus I stumbled upon the jacked up banana bread.  The name had me at hello.

The "jacked up" part of the recipe comes from a tablespoon of bourbon, but it's not your average bread from there either.  White sugar is replaced by brown, salted butter is mashed into the bananas, and cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg add spice.  Oh and you can make it all in one bowl, and in about 5 minutes.  Doesn't this recipe sound absolutely amazing? That's because it is.

I believe that I was unable to take a picture because we devoured it so immediately.  It's moist, flavorful, and just tastes different from your average banana bread.  This is not your grandma's quick brad, my friends.  This is the jacked up banana bread.  I hope my vivid descriptions and drawn-out explanations make up for the lack of photos.

Recipe:

jacked up banana bread
from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:
3 to 4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted salted butter
3/4 - 1 cup light brown sugar (depending on the level of sweetness you want; I used the smaller amount)
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon bourbon
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
up to 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
pinch of ground cloves
1 1/2 cups flour

Instructions:

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl.  Mix in the sugar, egg, vanilla, and bourbon, then the spices.  Sprinkle the baking soda and the salt over the mixture and mix in.  Add the flour last and mix.

2) Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8-inch loaf pan.  Bake for 50 minutes to one hour, or until a tester comes out clean.  Cool on a rack.  Remove from pan and slice to serve.