Friday, May 29, 2009

Banana Bread with Brown Butter and Caramel

This is the third recipe I have written using the caramel sauce from the DB Caramel Cake. If you love the flavor of caramel you simply have to make some to have on hand at all times. It’s easy enough to make and then any time that you want to add a wonderful caramel flavor to anything you have some in your fridge already!

P1010458

CARAMEL SYRUP (Shuna Fish Lydon of Eggbeater)

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1 cup water (for "stopping" the caramelization process)
In a small stainless steel saucepan, with tall sides, mix water and sugar until mixture feels like wet sand. Brush down any stray sugar crystals with wet pastry brush. Turn on heat to highest flame. Cook until smoking slightly: dark amber.
When color is achieved, very carefully pour in one cup of water. Caramel will jump and sputter about! It is very dangerous, so have long sleeves on and be prepared to step back.
Whisk over medium heat until it has reduced slightly and feels sticky between two fingers. {Obviously wait for it to cool on a spoon before touching it.}
Note: For safety reasons, have ready a bowl of ice water to plunge your hands into if any caramel should land on your skin.

Alright now that you have the caramel sauce at your disposal you HAVE GOT TO MAKE THIS BANANA BREAD!!!!!!

I had some bananas on hand that were definitely passed the comfortable eating stage but were not to the trash stage…yet. So I asked the girls what they wanted. Banana bread, banana cake, banana cookies etc…

They decided on banana bread so banana bread it was. Only this time I still had that caramel sauce in my head. And during the week Elle from Elle’s New England Kitchen had posted a recipe for Browned Butter Blueberry Maple Muffins. While her muffins looked great the browned butter thing was what stuck in my mind.

And that folks was the inspiration behind this wonderful banana bread!!!

Banana Bread (all recipes.com)

Preheat oven to 350

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
2 cups AP Flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 Tbsp caramel sauce (see above)
2-1/3 cup bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 pecans, chopped

  1. Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
  2. Melt the butter in a small pan, letting it boil until it starts to brown and smell nutty. Don’t let it burn. Stop it when it gets a deep brown color.There will be sediment at the bottom of the pan, so pour the butter through a wire mesh strainer and set aside to cool.
  3. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, stir together the browned butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs, mashed bananas vanilla, and pecans until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
  4. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

This bread was delicious and I will be making this again and again!!! I cut it as soon as it was cooled and it tasted great but the real flavor came through the next day!!!

As Always…

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

13 comments:

Maggie said...

That looks like a pile of deliciousness. I have 3 over-ripe bananas hanging out in my freezer precisely for lovely recipes like this. Thanks for sharing, Judy!

Deeba PAB said...

I'm like Maggie, & have 4 frozen bananas. Luckily also have the DB caramel syrup in my fridge. Am out for a bit, but this is on my list to-do & soon...thanks Judy!

pigpigscorner said...

This sounds amazing! I'm bookmarking this!!

Barbara Bakes said...

Great way to add a new flavor to banana bread.

RecipeGirl said...

Remember a long time ago when I said on Twitter that I was dreaming of Browned Butter Banana Bread?? I'm completely jealous that you even have this in your house!!

lisaiscooking said...

Sounds fantastic! I do love caramel, and I should have this syrup on hand at all times, just in case. The browned butter sounds amazing too.

Lo said...

Yikes. This sauce is adding pounds and inches to my waistline as we speak. Great idea to keep it on hand :) Bet it's great on EVERYTHING.

And I'm not even going to mention anything about that banana bread.

Thistlemoon said...

I am gonna have to make that darned sauce one of these days! Bet it would be great on pumpkin bread this fall!!!

glamah16 said...

Bnanaas and caramel sound divine together in a bread.

Jayme said...

I literally said, "Oh my god." when I saw the title for this recipe on foodgawker! I need to make this! I always seem to have bananas gone south, this will be my next use for them :)

Elle said...

Judy, you're a genius! I have some bananas that I need to use up-this would be perfect.

justeatfood said...

I have some bananas right now I need to use up! The browned butter and caramel sound like perfect compliments to banana bread. I didn't see that coming!

NuKiwi said...

I keep some of the caramel around in the fridge for...uhm, emergencies? LOL

YUMMM!