Based on your responses to my last post, it seems that banana bread and banana cake are blogger favourites! Now that I know what you like, allow me to suggest an accompaniment to your bananas:  rum.

I’m fairly late to the world of rum admirers. To be honest, until I started baking this butter cake with rum glaze, I’d rarely tried rum. But it’s fair to say that I am now a huge fan. And I have gone on to discover that just as coconut goes well with chocolate, rum goes very well with bananas.

While I managed to use most of our overripe bananas for the mini banana cupcakes that I made, I still had some in the fruit basket, waiting to meet their fate. But instead of making more banana cupcakes, I turned to one of the Cream Puffs in Venice Flavours of the Month for November 2006:  More From ACE Bakery. Linda Haynes’ book includes a recipe for banana fritters that she and her family would enjoy while on vacation. I had all the ingredients, but I thought I’d go a step further by adding both rum and coconut to my fritters.

Wow! I would gladly start each day with these fritters. Crispy on the outside, and soft and sweet on the inside. They ooze banana and the hint of coconut and rum is just right.

I must thank Linda Haynes for sending me a copy of More From ACE Bakery. It’s been lots of fun discovering this book and also finally trying some of the bread recipes from her first book, The ACE Bakery Cookbook. While the bread reciopes are rather involved, once you read through them a few times, you’ll see that they’re actually quite simple. There are a lot of steps involved, to be sure, but they’re not hard and anyone with even minimal baking experience should be able to produce some pretty nice bread.

Because the cookbooks contain so much more than just bread recipes, I think they’re very useful. If you’re looking for some new cookbooks to add to your collection or if you’re looking for gift ideas for the baker you know and love, you might want to consider these ones.

Well, that’s it. November is over. Come back tomorrow to see what the Flavour of the Month for December is!

Ciao!

Banana Fritters with Rum and Coconut

Adapted from More From ACE Bakery by Linda Haynes.

• 2 tbsp. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp. kosher salt
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 tbsp. coconut extract (optional)
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp. dark rum
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• vegetable oil for frying
• sugar (for garnish)
• 1 or 2 limes, cut into quarters (for garnish)

1. In a bowl, combine the sugar, baking powder, all-purpose flour, raisins, cinnamon and salt.
2. In another bowl, mix together the mashed bananas, the coconut extract (if using), the vanilla extract and the rum. Mix well.
3. Add the sugar mixture and mix well.
4. In a frying pan, heat enough vegetable oil to cover the bottom of the pan. Once hot, drop in tablespoonfuls of the batter. Fry for a few minutes on each side, or until golden brown.
5. Once cooked, remove the fritters to a plate lined with paper towels and sprinkle with sugar.
6. Serve the fritters with the quartered limes. Squeeze the lime juice on the fritters before eating.
7. Enjoy!

Note:  You should get anywhere from 15 to 20 fritters depending on size. These should be eaten right away.

Technorati tags:  bananas, fritters, rum, coconut, ace bakery