Brown Butter Banana Bread with Walnuts
Moist, deeply flavored banana bread with toasty brown butter, walnuts, and the most overripe bananas you can find. The loaf that made me stop buying banana bread at cafés.
Introduction
Banana bread is forgiving by nature — that's why it's everyone's first baking project. But there's a real gap between fine banana bread and the kind that disappears in two days. The two things that make the difference: bananas so ripe they're almost black, and butter you take five extra minutes to brown. That nutty, caramel layer of flavor is the whole point.
Cooking your way through our archive? Don't miss our Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes with Maple Syrup and Berries or our Molten Chocolate Lava Cake for Two, and browse every dessert recipe for more ideas.
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 55 min
- Servings
- 8
- Difficulty
- Easy
Ingredients
- •115 g unsalted butter
- •3 very ripe bananas (about 350 g peeled), mashed
- •150 g light brown sugar
- •2 large eggs
- •1 tsp vanilla extract
- •60 ml whole milk or buttermilk
- •200 g all-purpose flour
- •1 tsp baking soda
- •1/2 tsp fine salt
- •1 tsp ground cinnamon
- •80 g walnuts, roughly chopped, plus a handful for the top
Instructions
- 1
Preheat the oven to 175°C / 350°F and line a 9×5 inch loaf pan with parchment.
- 2
Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, swirling, until it foams and turns deep amber with a nutty smell, about 4–5 minutes. Pour into a large bowl and let cool slightly.
- 3
Whisk the mashed bananas, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, and milk into the brown butter.
- 4
In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
- 5
Fold the dry ingredients into the wet with a spatula until just combined, then fold in the walnuts. Do not overmix.
- 6
Scrape into the prepared pan, sprinkle the extra walnuts on top, and bake for 50–60 minutes, until a skewer in the center comes out with moist crumbs but no batter.
- 7
Cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then lift onto a rack to cool completely. It's even better the next day.
Tips from our kitchen
- Speckled bananas are good. Black bananas are better. Freeze overripe ones in the skin and thaw them when you want to bake.
- Brown the butter until you see dark flecks at the bottom of the pan — that's flavor, not burnt.
Nutrition (per serving, estimated)
Nutrition is an approximation generated from ingredient databases and may vary based on brands and exact measurements.
- Calories
- 320 kcal
- Protein
- 5 g
- Carbs
- 42 g
- Fat
- 15 g
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