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!
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!
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?
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.
Eggs and butter into the banana mash.
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.
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
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.
Barbara
I love banana bread, but since you’re in the south now, it’s kinda naked without some – or a lot – of pecans in it. Southern cooking uses a lot of pecans! NOLA is noted for pecan pralines and the nuts are abundant, although they are expensive right now. I love to make those, too. I love my grandmother’s recipe for banana nut bread, but I’ll try some browned butter next time I make it. I love to make-gift size pans out of card stock (using my Cameo digital cutting machine) and give small loaves to my neighbors with a matching hang tag.
Robyn Kramer
Hi, could I use regular nutmeg if I don’t have fresh and would it be less? thanks, love your blog:)
joythebaker
you can use pre-ground nutmeg if you must and yes just a touch less.
Chris
Banana bread… mmm… the nomz! Your new space looks awesome, the way food pix should look (if that makes sense). Congrats! ;-)
carole
There is something comforting about baking something familiar when you move. I moved over the summer to a totally new small town and didn’t have a working kitchen for 3 months… as soon as I could I baked chocolate chip cookies and made me feel comfortable right away.
Adrienne | Appetites Anonymous
Banana bread will totally help you settle in (great idea)! I LOVE all the photos of your new place. New Orleans is such a beautiful city! Thanks for letting us come along on your journey :)
Stephanie
Love this Joy. I just got back from New Orleans last week and have been bitten by that city’s infectious bug as well. So I’m taking a leaf from your book, packing up, and moseying on down there ASAP. Seeing the pictures from your new apartment is getting me obscenely excited about it. This bread may have to be one of the first things I bake in my new place too.
Abby @ The Frosted Vegan
I am loving your new space and light, also love following on your journey. Even though it’s scary/exciting, banana bread is always the answer!
Kimberly
I love that you are in your new home, and banana bread is the perfect comforting dish to settle in. Your new place has a new light that shines gently in the photographs. I hope you enjoy this new adventure!
Bailey Wallace
Oh I love this. So happy that you’re settling in all nice and swell. <3
cynthia | two red bowls
Beautifully written, Joy — and the banana bread looks so, so good! Buttermilk and brown butter are the keys to my heart. Best of luck in your new digs and hope you’re settling in wonderfully! Thanks for your lovely post.
Elizabeth Johnston
Joy! I have been reading you for over a year now, but I never leave comments! I’m leaving you one now because I was overwhelmed by empathy reading your last two posts. I moved from Texas to China 6 months ago and understand homesickness, but I love your positive attitude! Thanks for sharing your adventure with us! I haven’t been reading your blog since the beginning, but now I feel like I get to be here for your new beginning! Thanks for all the great recipes!!
Susie Hawes
I love your table… It makes every picture look homey… Banana bread does make it all cozy… i can just smell it now…
Lene
In my next life, I want to be Joy The baker :-)!
I´m sooo jealous of your street and your appartment – such beautiful surroundings for sure must be conducive to happiness. Enjoy.
Looking forward to more pictures of your kitchen. Happy unpacking and settling in.
Love, Lene
joythebaker
thank you lene!
Taylee @ twist me fit
I’m glad you are starting to settle in. The banana bread looks good!
hcnickerson
Your new neighbors…they have no idea how much they just lucked out. Happy settling in!