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.
emilia
Are molasses necessary?
joythebaker
not necessary, but delicious!
April
I make this ALL.the.time. During the colder months more than once a week. Recently I subbed pumpkin for the banana and used your homemade pumpkin pie spice. Amazing!
Bess R
Joy, I love love love this recipe and make it every time I’ve got brown bananas- which is often. I have a problem though with the way the banana bread bakes. I nearly always have to bake it for an hour and a half or so and the middle part poofs up a ton and seems to never be done well. I always want to take it out so the rest of the bread doesn’t get too dry but the middle top is still raw. What are your thoughts?
Cecilia
I tried it. It tasted so good and was very easy to make. I don ‘t have a mixer so I use an egg beater. Thanks for the recipe.
sarah
Hi, I am a dutch girl who tried to make this banana bread. But in Holland we are not so familiar with Molasse. So I made one without, also really nice! Now I found a store where they do sell molasse. But now I have two choices: liquid or solid molasse. Which one should I buy? What is the difference in taste or use? Hope you can help me! I am very curious how it will taste with molasse.
Thanks anyway, for all your lovely recipes!
joythebaker
i think you want liquid molasses. happy baking!
Allison
I am making this right now after a long week…(and it’s only Wed). Adding a splash of bourbon, because, well…
joythebaker
totally the right thing to do!
Rebecca Eats
I’m procrastinating some work by making this banana bread. I’m loving the addition of just a wee bit of molasses! It’s subtle but makes such a huge difference in the end product. Thanks for the recipe!
jenna @ butter loves company
making a version of this right now. was looking for something with bananas and buttermilk and this was the winner!
Shirley
Hi Joy, what can I use if I can’t find molasses? Thanks.
joythebaker
you can skip it! no worries.
Shirley
Thanks Joy. Really appreciate it! Oh btw, I made the double choc chip cookies the other day. My boyfriend loooooooves them. So do I. He said they are the best cookies he’s ever had in his life. Thank you thank you so much for all the inspirations and the amazing recipes. You’ve made me feel life’s so good with baking!!
Betsy
Any suggestions for a substitute for the molasses? Or would you not recommend altering this ingredient?
joythebaker
Hello Betsy, I recommend substituting it for either honey or maple syrup. It’s such a small amount that you can get away with using either one of those instead!
Alex
Do you think if you decreased the amount of floor in the recipe you could throw in some old fashioned oats?! I love adding oatmeal to banana bread
joythebaker
Hi Alex! You most definitely can! I love the idea of adding oats to this, I like the way you think!
vernthedog1
I have made your chocolate chip banana bread from your recipe book at least 5 times now and i cannot believe how much it’s adored. Thanks so much for the great book!
Katie @ Counter Dog
I just moved too, from northern Virginia to San Diego. The very first thing I baked was also banana bread, and I didn’t know why I chose it at the time, but you’re right, it’s comforting, it’s familiar, it’s happiness. I’ve been snacking on the loaf for days, and need to make a new batch soon. It’s starting to feel like home.
Rachael Tamar
Made it. Easy & delicious. Keeper!
Julia
I just made this entire thing in my college dorm room (browning the butter in my little microwave), through it in a pan, and walked it over to the dorm nearest to me with an oven! I made this recipe all summer, the absolute best banana bread I’ve ever come across! Thanks Joy! :)
joythebaker
Whoa, you go girl!