Brown Butter Banana Bread

I love to bake foods that use up leftover things. French toast, bread pudding, and banana bread are the tastiest ways to reduce waste in the kitchen.

So we had these bananas that were... um, vintage. All I'm saying is that if these bananas were people, they would be living in a nursing home and asking for a sponge bath every night while talking of the "good ol' days."

These are the most photogenic bananas, turned to their most beautiful angle. The others were completely black and were indiscernible as bananas. Welcome to college.

One thing I would like to say is that brown butter is the best thing ever. 

My whole apartment has a delicious nutty smell right now and I keep just pausing and taking a long moment to sniff the air... Yeah. Definitely addicted. 

I modified this recipe from La Casa de Sweets. 

Brown Butter Banana Bread

Yields: Two 9x5 loaves ***This time I made two 8x4 loaves plus one mini loaf.***

Banana bread:

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
5-6 of your most overly-ripe, disgusting bananas
4 tbsp milk
2 tsp vanilla extract

Pan lining:

1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Crumble topping:

1/2 cup flour
4 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp light brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
4 tbsp butter, very slightly softened and cut into cubes


Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Grease the pans. Mix the pan lining sugar and cinnamon. Coat the inside of the pans with the cinnamon-sugar.

2. Melt the butter on medium heat and let it bubble until it begins to turn brown. Mine always stops bubbling and just looks foamy when it's done. Just don't burn it! It should smell nutty and pleasant when it's barely done. Remove from heat.

3. While the butter is browning, mix together the crumble topping. I always use my beloved pastry cutter, but you can use a fork to mix the crumble.

4. Mix together the flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.

5. Whisk together the eggs and sugar. Beat it with the whisk until it becomes a pale yellow, nearly white. Whisk in the brown butter.

6. In a separate bowl, mash together your peeled bananas. Add them to the brown butter mixture. Add in the milk and vanilla.

7. Evenly distribute the batter between the prepared pans and top with the crumble topping.

8. Bake 9x5 loaves for 1 hour, 8x4 loaves for 50-55 minutes, and mini loaves for 35 minutes.

It's super moist and delicious! I think the brown butter makes it, honestly. All banana bread is good, but brown butter banana bread is YUMMOLICIOUS.