Brown Butter Cardamom Banana Bread
I hope you’ve got your bananas ripening quickly because this bread is off the hook. Nutty brown butter, fragrant cardamom and honey are all combined to make this tasty quick bread. I’m sure many of you have a go-to banana bread recipe that you love (we do too) but this was a great way to liven things up a bit. I was inspired by Christopher Kimball and saw his recipe for brown butter banana bread. I played around with his basic recipe and added my own twists along the way (subbing local honey in place of brown sugar and used half whole wheat flour) but otherwise followed his measurements. This is such a unique and tasty bread that I’m not sure I’ll make banana bread any other way again. I’m so happy with this and I cannot wait to see what you all think if you give it a whirl. Enjoy this banana bread with some strong black coffee and a good breakfast date and viola! Your morning just got a whole lot better.
Brown Butter Banana Cardamom Bread
Prep Time: 15 minutes Cook Time: 55 minutes Serves: 1 loaf
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
- 1 1/4 teaspoons ground cardamom
- 1/2 cup honey
- 2 cups mashed banana (from about 4 very ripe bananas)
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Preparation
- Preheat the oven to 350F with a rack in the upper middle section. Grease a 9-by- 5 inch loaf pan and set aside.
- In a large bowl whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat melt the butter. Once melted, continue to cook, swirling the pan often, until the butter is fragrant and deep brown, about 2-3 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and immediately stir in the cardamom. Carefully add the honey and bananas (the butter will sizzle and bubble a bit) and whisk until combined. Add the eggs and vanilla and whisk until smooth. Add the banana mixture to the flour mixture and using a wooden spoon fold until well combined and no dry flour remains.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared loaf pan and bake in the oven until the top is a deep golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle. About 50-55 minutes. Rotate the pan halfway through baking.
- Cool the bread in the pan for about 15 minutes before carefully removing it to completely cool on a wire rack.
Notes
*Store bread at room temperature in plastic wrap for 4 days *Cooking times will vary from kitchen to kitchen
Well clearly you had me at brown butter, but after catching that it’s a banana bread too I’m so excited!!!
YUM!!! I’m making this soon! 🙂
OH MY GOSH,
I just had my first slice, and seriously THANK YOU SO MUCH for sharing this recipe. This is delicious just as the recipe is, although I added a tad more bananas since I am a big fan of the flavor. I cannot wait till I have the spendable cash to buy your book, I know it’ll be amazing as everything I have made from your blog has been TOP NOTCH recipes.
Would it change the recipe to brown the butter on low heat for about half an hour? I thought that brown butter took a long time.
The butter browns up very quickly here so I’m not sure what would happen if you cooked it on low for 30 minutes–my guess is that more of the butter would evaporate. I just did a quick search for baked goods with brown butter and most recipes have a similar cooking time as this one (I used Christopher Kimballs original recipe for a guide here). However, if you want to give your method a try I’d say go for it! Let me know how it turns out! Happy baking! xoxoxo
Awesome! Thank you!
P.S. I picked up your cookbook last week, and have made the Spring Celebration Bowl and strawberry muffins so far. Both receipes were AMAZING. 🙂 For the strawberry muffin recipe, I made extra roasted strawberries and have been eating the leftover strawberries in overnight oats. Thank you for everything you do! Can’t wait for the next cookbook!
yay! Thank you for supporting the book. I’m so happy you’re enjoying the recipes. Thank you for letting me know! Means the world! xoxoxo
I made this recipe this morning and baked in mini-loaves (35 min with a turn at the 20 min mark) … Perfect and delicious. I added some crystallized ginger to 3 of the loaves. Not bad, but didn’t add much over the banana and brown butter! I did add 1/4 tsp cinnamon with the cardamom just because I usually do.
From your book, I made the garlic cashew cream sauce for a salad dressing (cabbage salad) and used some on a potato salad in place of mayo. Love that sauce and agree with Taylor: “hippie ranch” 🙂
Yay! This makes me so happy! So glad you’re loving the cookbook. I’m glad the mini loaves turned out here as well! Cheers!
Need to try this.
So just made it and let cool for about 30 minutes. Just sliced off an end to taste it, and wow! Delicious. Followed your recipe to the letter. The browned butter and salt really make it. Perfect crumb.
Ah – let me explain my “salt” comment. I also used Salted butter in the recipe. So more salt than what was called for, but I like what it did for the bread flavors.
I LOVE this Banana Bread ! The cardamom makes it so interesting and fragrant. I’m adding my now twist, like a big tablespoon apricot preserves and some flax meal.
And walnuts. Yum…. Thanks for the recipe !
I made this last night and it’s the best banana bread I’ve ever had. I did add about 3 T. of dark Jamaican rum to it. So delicious, thank you!
I would really like to try this recipe! For those of us who use the metric system and who don’t get butter in sticks 😉 : Could you tell us how many grams of butter, please? Thank you!