Bourbon Banana Butter ~ this fruit spread is the stuff of your wildest B&B fantasies ~ silky, rich, and a little bit decadent. Spread it on toast, biscuits, croissants, pancakes… let’s just say mornings are about to get a whole lot more interesting.
This is my favorite kind of stuff to share — something neither of us probably even knew existed, but turns out to be fantabulous. Banana butter is definitely unusual, but, when you think about it for a minute, it makes perfect sense. Every other fruit has been jammed, jellied, or made into a butter…why not bananas?
This amazing banana butter takes just 10 minutes to make!
I admit I wasn’t sure what I was in for as I sliced up my 2 pounds of bananas and pureed them with some brown sugar, and then set it all on the stove top to reduce down — but very soon my nose told me it was going to be good. The banana puree thickens up quickly. I cooked it until there was a clean trail when I ran my spoon across the bottom of the pan, it only takes about 5 minutes. I stirred in lots of vanilla bean paste and a pinch of cinnamon, and then filled a couple of small jam jars.
The butter continues to thicken even more as it chills in the refrigerator.
Team this up with the obvious — toast, scones, hot biscuits…but after that, why not make a to-die-for peanut butter and bourbon banana sandwich? Or even bake it into the best banana bread you’ve ever tasted, or use it as a filling for crumble bars.
Bourbon Banana Butter
Ingredients
- 2 lbs bananas, peeled and sliced (weigh your bananas BEFORE peeling)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 Tbsp bourbon
- 1 Tbsp vanilla bean paste, or extract
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Peel the bananas and break them up as you add them to the bowl of a food processor. Add the sugar and pulse a few times and then puree to a smooth consistency. You don't have to get out ALL the lumps. Your puree will be quite thin.
- Transfer to a heavy bottomed saucepan and add the bourbon. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Cook and stir until the mixture thickens. Be careful not to let it scorch. Turn down the heat if necessary. This should not take more than 5 minutes or so.
- Remove from the heat and add the vanilla and cinnamon. Pour into a small jar, or jars, and let cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate until needed.
- Plan to eat within a couple of weeks.
notes:
- No need to wait for your bananas to turn black, I used yellow bananas and the flavor was great.
- Leave out the bourbon if you don’t like it.
- Change out the cinnamon for nutmeg, or cardamom for a different flavor.
- You can experiment with using honey or maple syrup in place of the sugar.
Thanks for pinning!
Can you use a different fruit other than banana ? Maybe peaches,if so how much peaches would you use?
Check out my peach butter recipe, here.
I substituted spiced rum for the bourbon….and don’t want to stop eating it!! Yummy!
I plan on making this very soon. Question…have you tried freezing it? Thank you in advance!
I haven’t, but I don’t see any problem with freezing it.
I made my first banana bread today. I’m mostly anti sugar in all I do, so I cheated on the recipe and ended up putting very little sugar in my banana loaf. The result was that I could barely taste any banana at all… so I thought, alright, all is not lost on my low- sugar banana bread, I just need to add some extra banana-ness. So I thought, does banana butter exist? I found this recipe, followed it to the tee, except I used Sherry instead of bourbon. I spread my delicious banana butter on the relatively tasteless banana loaf, and it saved the day! Thanks!