Brown Butter Bourbon Banana Bread

By CheeseDiva

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 8 tablespoons butter
• 3 very ripe bananas
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon, brown sugar, divided
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon bourbon
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 2/3 cup toasted, chopped pecans

Details

Servings 9
Adapted from food52.com

Preparation

Step 1

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HOW: Dice one banana and sauté it in brown sugar until it’s caramelized. Mash the other two bananas, then beat them with eggs, sugar, brown butter, vanilla, and bourbon. Add this to your dry ingredient mixture along with some buttermilk, then fold in toasted pecans and the caramelized banana pieces.

Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease only the bottom of a standard size loaf pan with butter or nonstick cooking spray. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Set aside.

Melt butter over medium heat in a small, heavy-bottomed pot. Cook until it begins to brown, but not burn; it will smell nutty and fragrant. Remove from heat and let cool for 10 minutes.

Peel and dice one banana. Mash the remaining two bananas in a small bowl; set aside. Heat 1 tablespoon of the brown sugar in a small skillet over medium heat until it begins to melt and turn golden. Add diced banana pieces and sauté until well coated and caramelized. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Beat eggs on medium speed in a stand mixer. Add the remaining brown sugar and beat until foamy and combined. Add the mashed bananas, cooled browned butter, vanilla, and bourbon; beat until mixed well. Scrape down sides of bowl again with rubber spatula.

On low speed, pour in 1/3 of the flour mixture. Increase mixer speed to medium and mix until just blended. Pour in 1/3 of buttermilk and beat until just blended. Repeat this process with remaining flour and buttermilk. Fold in pecans and caramelized banana pieces. Pour into prepared loaf pan and bake for 55 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

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1 TBSP bourbon hardly makes for a "boozy" bread, but I guess the alliteration is cute...

One more side comment - I love the idea of adding cardamom. I remembered it when the batter was already in the pans, so I couldn't really add it at that point (although I considered it!). Next time! ;)

This is very good. I just took it out of the oven & it's been cooling about 10 minutes. I a double batch and made mini loaves (7). I made two pretty major changes. I replaced about 1/3 of the flour with whole wheat flour, and I replaced 1/2 of the butter with applesauce (I used 8T applesauce, since I doubled the batch). It's very moist and tasty. One note: I can't taste the bourbon at all. In a James Beard recipe I have for persimmon bread, it makes the same amount of bread, but the recipe calls for 2/3 of a cup of cognac, bourbon or whiskey, and the flavor stands out beautifully, but it's not over powering. With this in mind, I can't imagine how 1T would make a difference in flavor. Is there another reason for adding it other than flavor? All in all, it's a very nice recipe, but I'm not sure the extra steps make it any better than my usual recipe (from Cooking Light). I guess I expected to be blown away with the differences.

Diva Pourteau

I looooved this recipe!! I need some suggestions though...... mine was a little dry. Is there something I can add to it or should I reduce the baking time? I'd like to add some applesauce but I'm not sure what amount would be safe. Any help would be appreciated.

Simple and good. I roasted 3 bananas in the oven instead of caramelizing 1. and mis-poured the bourbon and ended up with a bunch more. oops.

the absolute best ever banana bread- i added a wee bit of cardamom too. the little bit of effort it takes to brown the butter and caramelize the chopped bananas is so well worth it.

Really great recipe! I made this with my kids -- oh how they loved the mashing part! I made a few changes -- sorry, had a lot of overripe bananas on my hands. I mashed 3 bananas, and diced another 2. The cake took 5 to 10 minutes longer to bake as a result but was moist and lovely -- and packed with bananas. I liked the caramelizing the bananas technique -- that and the browned butter add a lot of character to the cake. Thanks Jennifer!

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