Hawaii: Banana bread and ice wine from Painted Rock Winery

This recipe was decidedly the most enthusiastic my family has been to see me make something. By the time I acquired everything I needed and baked the thing (which took longer than expected since I interpreted the 170 degrees Celsius baking temperature as Fahrenheit), my natural daylight had expired. I guess we can thank daylight savings for that. It became a running joke, and challenge, for the members of my household to avoid digging into the bread before the sun rose again and I was able to get ample sunlight to get a halfway decent picture. As you can see, they succeeded.

Needless to say, everyone enjoyed the treat. And they have not me to thank, but the Hawaiian tradition of baking some of the best banana bread in the world. The recipe I used was inspired by the island’s local ingredients. Namely, the addition of macadamia nuts, which are unable to be found naturally anywhere but Hawaii, provided a bit of texture and saltiness which balanced out the sweetness nicely. Also, some dark chocolate chunks added a bit of richness. During the final minutes in the oven, the macadamia nuts on top of the bread toasted (see picture above), making my loaf very photogenic.

It is said that when you have wine with dessert, it should always be sweeter than whatever it is you’re eating. After all, my loaf was made with three very ripe bananas and about a quarter cup of sugar, so it was absolutely sweet. I had mentioned in my previous post that Hawaiian wine, in addition to surprising me that it existed in the first place, is naturally very sweet due to the climate and soil. I was not able to get my hands on this rare type of wine, so I instead reached for something similiar – a bottle of white ice wine from one of the Canadian producers I talked about in my post about Canadian wines, Painted Rock. It ended up being the perfect pairing for my banana bread, namely because ice wine is famously sweet (even resembling a syrup), and just a small glass of the stuff is all you need. It was just sweet enough to surpass my banana bread, and together they made for a great evening dessert/drink combo.