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Brown Butter Banana Bread

March 10, 2014 by Joy the Baker 126 Comments

Brown Butter Banana Bread

I’ve unpacked the moving boxes of the essentials:  sock slippers, gin, loaf pan, spatula, and mixing bowl.  I’ve managed to find the fancy candles I love,  a few pictures of my family, and the face wash.  The cookbooks are lined up on the book shelf, color-coded just like Shutterbean taught me.

I’m just far enough in the whole moving process to miss home.  Strange because I am home.  It’s just that I have to build up a familiarity to this new space. I don’t yet know its nuances.

What I do know is that I’m mostly responsible for feeling at home where I’m home.  It’s a state of mind.  It’s coming to understand the different shade of light.  It’s the different sounds of the street.  It’s the familiar smell of comfort.  Banana Bread feels like home, so Banana Bread it is!

Brown Butter Banana Bread

We’re not looking to reinvent the wheel here.  This banana bread is more about settling in and planting roots.  It’s tastes just like home to me, and so it is!

Brown Butter Banana Bread

I love that banana bread comes together rather effortlessly.  A bowl, fork, and spoon and we’re in business.

Good news for all of us, right?

Brown Butter Banana Bread

Mashed bananas are stirred together with granulated sugar and molasses.  I realized too late that I’m fresh out of brown sugar.  We can make our own…. or just stir it all together with gumption.

Butter is melted until it’s golden brown and smells juuuuust nutty.  I love the depth that brown butter adds to the banana bread.  Extra goodness, that’s all it is.

Oh!  I don’t have buttermilk either.  I squeezed a big wedge of lime into a bit of milk.  Buttermilk substitutions are key.

Brown Butter Banana Bread

Eggs and butter into the banana mash.

Brown Butter Banana Bread

No nuts.  No toasted coconut.  Nothing too fancy.  Just cinnamon spiced, brown butter magic banana bread.

The smell that fills the kitchen is home exactly.

Brown Butter Banana Bread

I thought about sharing this loaf with my neighbors, but there’s plenty of future for that.  I just needed to sit in from of this warm loaf and breathe it in.  The texture is dense but soft.  It’s lightly cinnamon spiced and hearty in the way that feels just right in the morning.  This banana bread is sweet and I find it’s best paired with a cup of milky coffee.  Slice into thick wedges.  No need to be coy.  We’re home.

Brown Butter Banana Bread

makes 1 9×5-inch loaf

Print this Recipe!

6 ounces unsalted butter, melted and browned to just over 1/2 cup of butter

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup buttermilk

1 1/4 cup mashed banana (from about 3 medium bananas)

2 teaspoons molasses

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour a 9×5-inch loaf pan and set aside.

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat.  Butter will begin to foam and crackle as it melts.  When the crackling subsides, the butter will begin to brown.  Swirl the pan as the butter cooks.  When the butter browns and begins to smell nutty, remove the pan from the flame and transfer the butter to a small bowl.  Taking the butter out of the hot saucepan will stop the butter from overcooking and burning.  Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, vanilla extract, and buttermilk.  Whisk in the mashed bananas and molasses.  When butter has cooled, whisk in the browned butter.

Add the wet ingredients, all at once to the dry ingredients.  Fold together, making sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl to reveal any hidden pockets of flour.  Fold together ingredients, but try not to over stir.

Spoon batter into prepared pan.   Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.  Remove from the oven and allow to rest in the pan for 15 minutes, before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Bread will last 4 days, well wrapped at room temperature.  This loaf also freezes well.

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Filed Under: Bread, Breakfast, Recipes

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  1. i am pam

    March 11, 2014 at 4:55 am

    love the big move you have made. it is exciting and i’m looking forward to all of your posts. and the good natural light in your kitchen is awesome.

    Reply
  2. Anna

    March 11, 2014 at 4:45 am

    I love banana bread so much and totally agree – it is the perfect comfort food. My mum makes brilliant banana bread and the smell of it remind me of her and home. I like that your recipe doesn’t have any fancy additions, I don’t think banana bread needs them at all. I definitely need to try the brown butter though, I bet it adds a lovely flavour.

    Now I think I have some bananas browning in the fruit bowl…Inspiring as always!

    Reply
  3. Natasha

    March 11, 2014 at 4:37 am

    I’m always keen to try a new Banana Bread recipe, especially one with browned butter which I must admit I’m very new to. Your photographs look wonderful – I love the table in front of the window. Welcome home!

    Reply
  4. Vickie

    March 11, 2014 at 4:25 am

    looks delicious – the perfect comfort food

    Reply
  5. Jayne @ Tenacious Tinkering

    March 11, 2014 at 2:50 am

    PS: For some reason the print function isn’t working for me. Is anyone else having that problem?

    Reply
    • joythebaker

      March 11, 2014 at 7:14 am

      let me look into this for you! sorry about that!

      Reply
    • joythebaker

      March 11, 2014 at 7:16 am

      should be fixed up now!

      Reply
  6. Jayne @ Tenacious Tinkering

    March 11, 2014 at 2:49 am

    Banana bread makes any place a home. I have every exact ingredient on here and that means I’ll be banana bread baking tonight. Sometimes we need to be reminded why the house is a home.

    Reply
  7. Gry

    March 11, 2014 at 12:55 am

    I love the light in your new kitchen. Very inspiring. Banana bread is always a good idea. I’ll make some asap.

    Reply
  8. Ashlee Spear

    March 11, 2014 at 12:32 am

    As a California girl myself, I’m feeling a bit Venice homesick for you. New Orleans is a big, bold move! I’m excited to see where it takes you. Hope your banana bread has worked its magic:)

    Reply
  9. Jessica (bakecetera)

    March 11, 2014 at 12:25 am

    banana bread is always the best house warmer! i love the addition of molasses into the recipe! i hope you get settled and that you’re happy in your new home :D.

    Reply
  10. thelittlecookbook

    March 11, 2014 at 12:07 am

    Joy you’re speaking in volumes to me here. I was searching high and low for a basic yet amazing banana bread recipe, and I am pondering an international move. Your journey is definitely inspiring me. Being new in a city is amazing, embrace the newness of everything around you, you’ll walk the same streets in 2 years and they’ll look so different. Normality looks so different to the shine of new, both are great, but you can’t get that same “first look” back – the streets will feel different, the light will fall a different way and routes will become less and less adventurous. Good luck and enjoy it! Meanwhile i’m just gonna eat an entire loaf of banana bread.

    Reply
    • joythebaker

      March 11, 2014 at 7:18 am

      you’re so right! best of luck with your possible move! i’m rooting for you!

      Reply
  11. Laura (Tutti Dolci)

    March 10, 2014 at 11:16 pm

    Gorgeous, the perfect bread to break in your new home!

    Reply
  12. sue/the view from great island

    March 10, 2014 at 9:53 pm

    We’re on the same banana bread page today…It looks like your new space has some pretty decent light!

    Reply
  13. Amy

    March 10, 2014 at 9:40 pm

    The natural light looks so good here!

    Reply
  14. Elyse

    March 10, 2014 at 9:38 pm

    Gin and banana bread sound like a wonderful start to any adventure in my book!

    Reply
  15. Averie @ Averie Cooks

    March 10, 2014 at 9:30 pm

    Welcome home! There’s nothing like banana bread to make you feel all cozy & homey! And look at you DIYing for both buttermilk and brown sugar. Resourcefulness is always an awesome thing. I would love a slice of your bread. I hope you’re settling in to your new home and what a gorgeous first photo shoot in a new space. WOW!

    Reply
    • joythebaker

      March 11, 2014 at 7:19 am

      come visit, Averie!

      Reply
      • Glenda

        March 11, 2014 at 9:37 am

        Banana bread smell like home to me too, I will give this recipe a try, I like the brown butter idea.

        Reply
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