Brown Butter Banana Bread with Maple Spread

This Brown Butter Banana Bread with Maple Spread is the only banana bread recipe you need. We have seen everyone’s quarantine banana bread baking and we knew we had to chime in with our absolute favorite recipe. Gone are the dry, rubbery, tasteless loaves, say hello to our perfectly moist flavourful banana bread that will have you stocking up on bananas for any excuse to have them brown.

In last week’s “Salted Brown Butter Rice Krispie Treats” recipe we introduced you to the wonderful world that is brown butter. We professed our undying love to it’s nutty caramelized flavor. And today we bring you the ultimate brown butter banana bread with maple spread. If you think banana bread couldn’t get any better, try this recipe!

Maple, cinnamon, and banana are best friends they were meant to be together. So do not leave out the MAPLE SPREAD it takes 2 minutes to make and enhances the flavours so well.

Our recipe is adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction Favourite Banana Bread.

Here is what you will need:

Things to Keep in Mind

• Like all self-respecting banana breads, the bananas need to be ripe to give moisture and sweetness to this loaf. The darker the skin of the banana the better. Here is a hack when you want to make banana bread but your bananas are not quite ready: Preheat your oven to 170°C. Wash your bananas and pat them dry. Place them on a baking sheet and into the oven for 30-40 minutes depending on the size and status of ripeness they were in. When they turn black and shiny they are ready. Take them out and let them come to room temperature, and you now have perfectly ripe bananas for this recipe.
• If your bananas are extra ripe but you cannot make banana bread that day, a great way to keep them from going to waste is peeling and freezing the bananas in ziplock bags. Simply thaw and bring to room temperature before using.
• We find that nuts give a great texture and crunch to this banana bread. Walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, or macadamia nuts are all good options. We like to dust our nuts with a little flour to make sure they don’t sink to the bottom of our baking pan. Feel free to omit them for any allergy concerns, or if you are a NUT HATER.
• Make sure your eggs and butter are room temperature.

Notes for Browning the Butter

• Do not take your eyes off of this for the 10 minutes it takes to make. You need to be stirring it constantly to avoid burning
• Use a light-colored pan when making this. You will be able to judge the color much easier. 
• If you’re making this for another recipe you will need to quickly place it in a heatproof bowl to cool. If left in that pan it will keep cooking and burn. 
• Don’t get discouraged if you do burn it. We burnt this the first couple of times until we got it right. There is no saving burnt brown butter. Simply discard it and try again.
• Your butter cant be straight out of the fridge. It doesn’t need to be room temperature but it shouldn’t be frozen or too cold. The third time we made this we almost died. We used butter that had not fully thawed. There was so much extra moisture because it was frozen that it splattered everywhere and we were dodging burning hot butter in the kitchen.  

How to Brown Butter

In a large pot, melt butter over medium-low heat. Be prepared here it will start to foam and splatter. Stir constantly, scraping the bottom of the pan, and watch it. It will turn a transparent golden color. You will see the milk solids separate (small brown dots) they will start to turn a hazelnut brown color and smell nutty.

Once your butter is browned quickly move it to a heat resistant bowl and stick it in your fridge for 15 minutes to cool it off and solidify a bit. Substitute in any baking recipe that calls for butter for an extra nutty caramalized flavour.

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How to Make Banana Bread

Prepare your ingredients;

1. Make sure your eggs are at room temperature.
2. Brown and cool the butter in the fridge until it reaches a slightly solidified state.
3. Chop your walnuts if using, and dust with a little bit of flour.
4. Mash the bananas with a fork
5. Prepare and measure your other ingredients.

Lets Mix

Heat your oven to 175°C (350° F) and spray a loaf pan with non stick spray or a light layer of vegetable oil.

In a medium sized bowl whisk your dry ingredients together; flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the brown sugar with the brown butter on high speed until creamy, about two minutes. Lower the speed to medium and beat in the eggs one at a time, Then add in your vanilla, mashed bananas, and vanilla yogurt, continue to mix just until incorporated well.

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Turn the mixer down to low speed and carefully add in your dry ingredients until the ingredients are fully incorporated. Avoid over mixing.

Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and with a spatula fold in your choice of nuts. We like to always dust ours nuts with a little flour whenever we are baking to make sure they don’t sink to the bottom of the baking pan.

Bake it

Immediately spoon the banana bread mixture into the prepared baking pan. Slice 2 thin strips of a banana lengthwise and place on top for decoration. These slices get nice and caramelized in the oven for an extra punch of flavor plus it looks great.

Place your baking loaf in the oven on the middle rack and bake for 60 – 65minutes. After 30 minutes or if you notice the loaf starts to brown to quickly cover the top while still in the oven with a buttered piece of foil or even better with baking paper if available. Aluminum foil tends to absorb heat and could dry up the top part of the banana bread.

After 60 minutes start testing with a toothpick until it comes out clean.

Let the Banana bread cool while still in the pan before removing.

Maple Spread

We can not get enough of this maple butter. It goes perfectly on top of a warm slice of our banana bread. Spread it liberally and drizzle on a bit of maple syrup.

To make the maple butter mix 1/2 stick of room temperature butter with 3 tablespoons of maple syrup. Mix well and allow to set up in the fridge.

Storage

This banana bread keeps in an airtight container for two days on the counter, and a week in the fridge. For freezing you can slice it (or keep it whole) and double wrap it with aluminium foil before storing it in a ziplock bag.