Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Wow, after typing out the name of this banana bread, I realize it’s such a mouthful! Even though this recipe has a long name, it’s still worth making, trust me. It was hot this weekend (surprise, surprise) and after my friend went home to Boston, I was on a panel about book publishing at a conference in the financial district. The conference was great, but after schlepping through FiDi in the pounding heat, the last thing I wanted to do was spend the afternoon outside. This is where banana bread comes into play. During the week I make a lot of smoothies either for breakfast, or after working out in the evening, so I keep a lot of fruit (both fresh and frozen) on hand at all times. I think the heat in my apartment made my bananas ripen much quicker than normal so I had to do something with them.

I decided to make a banana bread with brown butter, modified from Joy the Baker’s recipe, and love the results! The banana bread is a lot more dense than other variations I’ve made and the flavor of the brown butter really comes through. I hope you all have some fun weekend plans! I’m heading to Western Massachusetts with my family for an outdoor excursion. 🙂

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

• 6 ounces unsalted butter, melted and browned to just over 1/2 cup of butter
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup coconut milk
• 1 1/4 cup mashed banana (from about 3 medium bananas)
• 2 teaspoons molasses
• 1 cup dark chocolate chips (or more depending on how chocolately you want your bread to be!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour a 9×5-inch loaf pan and set aside.

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat.  Butter will begin to foam and crackle as it melts.  When the crackling subsides, the butter will begin to brown.  Swirl the pan as the butter cooks.  When the butter browns and begins to smell nutty, remove the pan from the flame and transfer the butter to a small bowl.  Taking the butter out of the hot saucepan will stop the butter from overcooking and burning.  Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, vanilla extract, and coconut milk.  Whisk in the mashed bananas and molasses.  When butter has cooled, add in the browned butter.

Add the wet ingredients, all at once to the dry ingredients.  Fold together, making sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl to reveal any hidden pockets of flour.  Add in chocolate chips and stir.

Pour batter into pan.   Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.  Remove from the oven and allow to rest in the pan for 15 minutes, before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely. Wrap well for 4 days at room temp or freeze!