Caramelised Banana Jam Recipe

Bananas aren’t the first fruit you think of for making jam, but this Caramelised Banana Jam recipe brings in a whole range of delicious flavours. If you want more of a Caribbean flavour, then add some rum at the end of the process.

I had 2 big bunches of Lady Finger bananas that were ripening all at once so that I had hundreds of bananas to use up all at once. I’d frozen several large bags of peeled bananas to use for making banana cake, blueberry banana muffins and banana icecream – and still I had more. So I was delighted when I found a few recipes for banana jam. This is my blend of the recipes to try to simplify the process. The first time I made it, it had a slight aftertaste (due to the bananas I used I discovered later) but I got good feedback from those I gave jars to for testing.

1kg sliced bananas (approx 1.2kg skin on depending on type of banana)
2 cups brown sugar
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup lime juice
1 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp rum (optional)

Add the brown sugar, water, lime juice, butter and salt to a preserving pan and heat until the sugar has dissolved and is boiling.

Add bananas to the brown sugar syrup and simmer, stirring, on medium heat for 25-20 minutes. Break up the banana pieces with a potato masher and keep simmering until the mixture thickens (it will thicken the more you mash the bananas).

Add the vanilla extract (and rum if you want).

Spoon into hot sterilised jars and seal.