Toasted Coconut and Chocolate Chip Banana Bread with Rum

I feel like I shouldn’t even bother adding, “with Rum” to the title because don’t you guys just KNOW there’s always rum in my recipes?! 😉 Anyway, my husband is one of those weirdos (weirdo is a term of endearment) that like their bananas slightly green and I have to have mine with a few freckles on them. Apparently neither one of us wanted anything to do with bananas last week and I watched an entire bunch go from slightly green, to yellow, to freckled, to brown.. completely untouched. Since I hate when food goes to waste, I inevitably got out the flour, eggs, and milk to go about making another loaf of banana bread.

I try to make each loaf slightly different so I took my love of Mounds candy bars (dark chocolate and coconut) and my other love, Sailor Jerry Rum, and made the best damn loaf of banana bread I’ve ever baked! And that’s saying a lot considering banana bread was the very first recipe I published on here. The banana, chocolate, coconut, and rum all seem to complement each other perfectly without overpowering one another and the bread is light yet still.. dare I say.. moist. Can we just banish that word from the English language already and replace it with something less gross sounding? Regardless of which adjectives you like or dislike, I think the one word we’ll all agree on is DELICIOUS!

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Ingredients:

1 cup sweetened shredded coconut + a little extra for the top

¾ cup sugar

½ (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

3-4 ripe bananas

1/3 cup milk

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

¼ cup Sailor Jerry Rum

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 cup dark chocolate chips + a few extra for the top

(1.) In a medium sized skillet over low-medium heat, add 1 cup of shredded coconut and cook for 5-7 minutes, stirring constantly. (2.) Cook until most of the coconut is a light golden brown. Transfer to a plate to cool and set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (176 degrees C) and butter a 9” by 5” loaf pan. (3.) In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat together sugar and butter until fluffy. (4.) Slowly mix in bananas, milk, eggs, vanilla extract, and Sailor Jerry Rum until mixture is smooth.

(5.) In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. (6.) Slowly add to liquid mixture and mix until combined. (7. & 8.) Fold in toasted coconut and chocolate chips until incorporated evenly.

Pour batter into prepared bread pan. Top with a bit of extra coconut and chocolate chips. Place in the oven to bake for 55 minutes to 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Place pan on a cooling rack for 10-15 minutes. When cool enough to touch, bang the pan on the counter a few times to help loosen the bread. Flip pan upside down into your hand to release the banana bread. Place loaf right side up on the cooling rack to finish cooling another 20 minutes.