Brown-Butter Banana Bread with a Crackly Demerara Top
- Yield
- 10 servings
This is the loaf on the counter that disappears by the end of the day, so we made every part of it count. The move is browning the butter first: its milk solids toast until they smell like hazelnuts, and the whole loaf picks up a deep, toffee-ish edge. Very ripe, nearly black bananas bring the sweetness and the perfume, toasted walnuts the crunch, a little salt the balance, and a coat of demerara sugar on top bakes into a crackly crust like the top of a bakery muffin.
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Ingredients
Batches and reset
10 servings · US measures · 1 batch
Batching
Mix and bake each loaf as its own batch in its own 9 x 5-inch pan. Do not bake a doubled batter in one pan; baking time does not scale with ingredient quantities.
Original recipe: 10 servings.
Optional cinnamon is left out of the nutrition estimate, as is any extra salt or brown sugar added at the tasting step. Nutrition is incomplete because the demerara sugar has no matched record yet.
Before you start
- Read through the recipe before heating the oven. Gather the pan, saucepan, bowls, utensils and measured ingredients, and set the eggs out to lose their chill.
Directions
Measure everything and warm the eggs
For the whole recipe
Read through the recipe, gather the equipment, and use the ingredient lines to measure and prepare everything. Set the eggs on the counter so they lose their chill while you work. Everything is measured and within reach.
Heat the oven and line the pan
For each loaf
Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C) with a rack in the middle position. Rub the inside of the 9 x 5-inch metal loaf pan with the softened butter, then press in a strip of parchment that runs across the bottom and up both long sides so it overhangs for lifting. Start baking only after the oven reaches 350°F.
Toast the walnuts
For each loaf
Toast about 3/4 cup walnut pieces: spread them on the small rimmed sheet pan and bake them on the middle rack at 350°F until they smell nutty and look a shade darker, about 7 to 9 minutes. Let them cool on the pan, then chop them roughly.
Swap: pecans for walnuts
The nuts are there for crunch and a toasty, slightly bitter edge against all that sweetness. Pecans do the same job with a softer, more buttery flavor; toast them the same way, until they smell nutty.
Brown the butter until it smells like hazelnuts
For each loaf
Brown the butter in the small saucepan over medium heat, swirling the pan often as it foams, crackles and then goes quiet, until the bits on the bottom are the color of toasted hazelnuts and it smells nutty, about 5 to 7 minutes. Pour it straight into the large bowl, scraping in every brown bit, and let it cool until just warm.
Why it works: brown butter
Butter is part milk solids. Cook it past melting and those solids toast, so the same butter gives the loaf a nutty, caramel depth that plain melted butter can't.
If it goes wrong: the bits turn black
Brown butter turns to burnt butter fast, and burnt tastes bitter in every slice. Pour it out, wipe the pan and start again; pull it the moment it smells like toasted nuts.
Mash the bananas into the brown butter
For each loaf
Add the bananas to the browned butter and mash them with the potato masher or fork until mostly smooth, with a few pea-size lumps left. Stir in about 2/3 cup light brown sugar, 1/2 tsp fine sea salt, the vanilla and the cinnamon, if using. Keep stirring until the sugar no longer feels gritty against the bowl.
Technique: rescue bananas that aren't ripe yet
The blacker the peel, the sweeter and more fragrant the banana. If yours still show yellow, roast them in their peels on the sheet pan in the hot oven until the skins turn black and shiny and the fruit is soft, then let them cool before mashing.
Taste the base before the eggs go in
For each loaf
Taste a small spoonful of the banana base before the eggs and flour go in. Aim for a clear banana sweetness with a faint salty edge. If it tastes flat, add fine sea salt to taste; if it is not sweet enough, add light brown sugar to taste, no more than 2 tbsp for this loaf. Stir and taste again until the base tastes sweet and clearly of banana.
House call: taste before the eggs
Bananas vary from bunch to bunch, so we taste here, at the last point the bowl holds no raw egg or flour. A quick taste beats trusting the label on any recipe, ours included.
Whisk in the eggs one at a time
For each loaf
Whisk in the eggs one at a time, beating each until no yolk streaks remain and the base looks glossy.
Fold in the flour, just barely
For each loaf
Whisk the flour and baking soda in the medium bowl until no white specks of soda show. Pour the flour mixture over the banana base and fold with the rubber spatula, scooping from the bottom and turning the bowl, just until no dry flour shows. Fold in the toasted walnuts with the final few strokes.
Sugar the top and bake
For each loaf
Scrape the batter into the lined pan, smooth the top and sprinkle 2 tbsp demerara sugar evenly over it. Bake on the middle rack at 350°F until the loaf is domed and deep golden brown and a toothpick pushed into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs but no wet batter, about 55 to 65 minutes. If the top turns dark brown before the center is done, lay the sheet of foil loosely over the pan.
Why it works: the crackly top
Demerara crystals are big and slow to melt. They sit on the batter, caramelize at the edges and set into a thin, crunchy shell that cracks when you slice, the way a good muffin top does.
If it goes wrong: dark top, wet middle
A loaf that is dark outside and wet inside needs more time, not a hotter oven. The sugared top colors faster, so lay the foil loosely over it, keep baking and test again a few minutes later.
Cool in the pan
For each loaf
Cool the loaf in its pan on the wire rack until the pan is cool enough to handle, about 10 minutes.
Lift out and cool completely
For each loaf
Lift the loaf out by the parchment and cool it on the rack until the bottom feels cool to the touch, about 60 minutes or longer.
Why it works: the long cool
A hot loaf is still setting inside. Slice it early and the crumb smears and turns gummy; give it the full cool and the slices hold together cleanly.
Slice and serve
For the whole recipe
Cut the cooled loaf with the serrated knife into 10 slices, each a little under 1 inch thick; the slices hold together without crumbling once the inside has set. Wrap leftovers tightly and keep them at room temperature for up to 3 days.
House call: toast a thick slice
Day-old banana bread is a gift. Cut a thick slice, toast it in a dry skillet until both sides crisp and brown, and spread it with salted butter while it's hot.
Make it yours: from safe to wild
Safe: trade the walnuts for dark chocolate chunks, with a spoon of instant espresso stirred into the warm butter. Bolder: swirl tahini through the batter in the pan and sprinkle sesame seeds with the demerara. Wild: whisk white miso into the warm brown butter for a salty-sweet, savory loaf.
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- Recipe url
- https://isthebestrecipe.com/breads/banana-bread
- Name
- Brown-Butter Banana Bread with a Crackly Demerara Top
- Servings
- 10
- Recipe yield
- 10 servings
- Recipe ingredient
- 1 tsp unsalted butter softened, for the pan, about 3/4 cup walnut pieces, about 4 oz unsalted butter browned and cooled until just warm, 3 whole very ripe medium bananas peels heavily speckled or black, about 2/3 cup light brown sugar packed, 1/2 tsp fine sea salt, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 2 whole large eggs at room temperature, about 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour spooned into the cup and leveled, 1 tsp baking soda, 2 tbsp demerara sugar for the top
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