Brown Butter and Butternut Squash Bread

By Texaschef11

Ingredients

• Glaze (optional):
• 2 cups pureed roasted butternut squash
• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (preferrably freshly ground)
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 5 tablespoons salted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cup or so of confectioner’s sugar

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and grease two (9 inch) loaf pans.

In a medium saucepan, heat the butter over medium-high heat. It will melt first, and then start to foam. Turn the heat down to medium. As the butter browns, the dairy solids will start to stick to the bottom of the pan. Scrape these browned bits back into the butter from time to time. After about 7 minutes, the butter will have turned a nice brown color will smell rich and nutty; remove it from the heat and allow to cool for about 10 minutes.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat eggs and sugars on high speed for several minutes, until the color has lightened. Scrape in the browned butter and beat for another couple of minutes, starting on low and raising speed to medium-high, until the mixture is smooth.

Add the pureed squash to the wet ingredients and beat until smooth and uniformly mixed in.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, and cloves. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, and mix on low until fully incorporated. Do not overmix.

Divide the batter evenly into the 2 prepared loaf pans and bake for about 50 minutes, until a tester comes out clean. Take the bread out of the loaf pans and allow to cool completely.

To make the optional glaze, brown and cool butter as described above (it will take shorter since there is less). Add cooled butter to a mixing bowl. Whisk vanilla into butter.

Sift the confectioner’s sugar to remove lumps and whisk it into the butter mixture until the glaze is spreadable.

Spread the icing onto the loaves, and allow to set for about 30 minutes before slicing.