Burnt Butter Banana Bread – a superb tongue twister, say it faster and faster. It has a wonderful ring to it, don’t you think. Like something you should eat NOW!

This Burnt Butter Banana Bread is the result of my therapy session in the kitchen. I wanted (no needed) to make the ordinary extraordinary. I had no intention of heading to the shops, wanted to make something delicious so I had to take store cupboard ingredients and do something special with them. Errieda Du Toit from the blog Huiskok, inspires thousands of followers to her blog and Facebook page to look at simple ingredients in a different way. Her latest creation, a cabbage pie!

So to get back to my banana bread, I thought if I take the main ingredients and tweak them a little, it will add flavor to the banana bread. So I burnt the butter, flambéd the bananas, toasted the walnuts and used dark brown sugar instead of just white. To top it all, I made a brandy caramel sauce to brush over the top. Well, the result was quite spectacular and that is the opinion of the eager eaters.

Burnt Butter Banana Bread

makes 2 loaves – one is just never enough

Ingredients

5 – 6 bananas – you need about 2 cups mashed + 2 whole bananas for the top

2 cups/500 ml dark brown sugar

2 x 150 g Fairview Full Fat Yogurt

1 cup/ 225g butter

⅔ cup buttermilk

4 eggs

900 ml flour

2 t/10 ml baking soda/bicarbonate of soda

1 t salt

1 cup/250 ml chopped walnuts – toasted in a dry pan

For the sauce

3 T butter
3 T brown sugar
1 T brandy

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 C/375 F. Grease and line two loaf tins with non-stick spray and baking paper.

Place the butter in a pan and melt on low heat. Once the butter has melted, increase the heat. Keep your eye on it and stir until the butter has a wonderful golden color and incredible aroma. Cool slightly. (Keep the pan for the sauce) Add burnt butter to the eggs, buttermilk, yogurt, sugar and mashed banana in a large mixing bowl. Mix thoroughly.
Mix the flour, baking soda and salt and gently fold into the wet mixture. Lastly add the walnuts and mix through. Pour the batter into the loaf tins.

Place the butter and sugar for the sauce in the pan and melt. Once it starts bubbling, cut the 2 whole bananas in half and place in the butter/sugar mix. Add the brandy and give the bananas a good toss in the caramel. Place the banana halves in/on the batter in the loaf tins and keep the remaining sauce.
Bake the loaves for about 50 – 60 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when you test it. Pour the remainder syrup over the loaves and serve.

Cook’s Notes: If the urge for banana bread is overwhelming and your bananas are not ripe enough. Place bananas in a glass jug. Boil a kettle of water and pour the boiling water over the bananas so that they are completely submerged. Wait until the bananas are black all over, pour off the water and use the bananas as per recipe.

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