A delectable banana bread teeming with bits of pineapple, toasted coconut, macadamia nuts and a touch of rum extract that you can trade out for the real thing. The bread is rich, dense and moist with a sweet glaze to top it off. It’s the next best thing to a pina colada.

Banana bread is one of those old-fashioned, timeless classics that never goes out of style. Just ask Google for a banana bread recipe and you’ll get 28 million of them. It’s constantly being reinvented and everyone seems to love it, even banana haters, like my Dad.

I’ve never seen him eat a banana in my entire life and you’ll never catch him drinking a frou-frou pina colada but this bread is a whole other story. He helped eat it until every last crumb was gone and loved every moment of it.

If you’re like me, an avid daydreamer, after the first bite, you might find yourself on a sunny island where coconut shells make perfectly acceptable bathing suit tops and drinking ice cold pina coladas all day with colorful umbrellas sticking out of them is perfectly normal. You might even imagine, for a moment, your toes are in the sand as a cool ocean breeze runs through your hair.

It totally works for me.

Until I take the last bite and wash it down with a hot sip of tea only to realize it was all a daydream.

Pina Colada Banana Bread

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Ingredients

1/2 cup butter softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon rum extract or 1 tablespoon rum
1 cup mashed ripe banana 2 - 3 medium
3/4 cup crushed pineapple drained (save some of the juice for the glaze)
3/4 cup unsweetened coconut flakes *toasted, hold back a tablespoon or two for the top
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup chopped macadamia nuts plus a few tablespoons for top
Glaze:
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 - 2 tablespoons pineapple juice

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a standard sized loaf pan.
In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large mixing bowl cream butter and sugar together on medium speed 3 minutes.
On low speed beat in the eggs then the vanilla then the banana, pineapple and coconut just until combined.
In a separate medium mixing bowl whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together.
Add to the wet ingredients and beat on low speed just until combined. Mix in the nuts by hand. Spoon into the pan and smooth out the top.
Bake at 350° for 65-70 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from center. Cool bread on wire rack 20 - 25 minutes, turn out and cool completely.
To make the glaze whisk the sugar and pineapple juice together. Pour over top of the bread and spread it out so it drips down the side. Sprinkle with the coconut flakes and nuts set aside earlier.
Store tightly covered up to 4 days.