This week, I was faced with the age old question.

What should I do with these dramatically overripe bananas?

Well, would you look at that?  Now that they’re sitting in a skillet with some butter, eggs, ginger, and rum, they look a little more promising.

Thanks to the very inspiring food blog, Joy the Baker, I found the perfect solution for my nearly rotten fruit: Dark and Stormy Banana Bread.

Not only do I appreciate banana bread in all it’s forms, but I also enjoy a Dark ‘n Stormy cocktail.  Plus, while standard issue banana bread is perfect for being cozy on a winter day, making it with a “Dark and Stormy” spin somehow feels more appropriate for spring weather – a little bit Caribbean, perhaps?

Let’s start by lightly browning up some butter.

I’ve never made banana bread this way.  (I didn’t realize you could – I’m always thinking inside the box… )  But I LOOOOVE that it all happens in one pan.  No bowls to clean.  Amazing.

To our melted butter, we whisk in some brown sugar and vanilla.

Until it’s nice and smooth.

And then ingredients wind up in the skillet one by one, mixing as we go.  Eggs, mashed banana, ginger, RUM…

Finally, with the addition of flour (I had to make an effort to be less messy than usual… the only downside of doing all your mixing in a cast iron skillet… ), it actually begins to look like a batter.

After baking, it puffed up perfectly.  Joy recommends leaving it a hair on the underdone side, and I couldn’t help but agree.  The center of the bread was suuuuper moist and melty.

And the whole darn thing just looks so pretty sitting there in it’s skillet.  I should do this more often.  On a side note, I think my cast iron skillet is finally approaching that “seasoned” state that I’ve always aspired to.

Should you happen to want to make your own, and should you happen to have missed the link above, you can find Joy’s recipe here!

Happy Friday!!