The Extra Step To Take For Even Richer Homemade Banana Bread

While you can make easy banana bread with just three ingredients, you can also add a lot of extras to make it even more memorable. Some classic choices include chocolate chips, nuts, zucchini (to sneak in some veggies), warm spices, and coconut. But there is one step you can take the next time you make banana bread that will be invisible to the naked eye, yet makes a world of difference in flavor: brown your butter. First, you'll want to choose a recipe that uses melted butter instead of oil — then instead of simply melting it, take a little extra time to make it special.

Browning butter requires little more than butter, heat, and some patience. It may be simple, but learning how to make brown butter will improve so many dishes. Start by using a lighter-colored pan, like stainless steel, because you'll determine that the butter is done by its color. Melt your butter over medium low-heat, gently swirling it around. As it starts to simmer, a white foam will begin to accumulate at the top — this is just the milk proteins, or solids, separating from the butterfat. Eventually, they will sink to the bottom of the pan. At this point, you've managed to make delicious clarified butter — congrats! Let the butter stay on the heat just until those solids are browned and it smells toasty.

The brown butter will impart not only moisture to your banana bread, but a delicious rich, nutty aroma, too. Plus it will give the finished bake a rich flavor that you just can't replicate with oil.

Browning the butter improves both the texture and taste of banana bread, making it an easy way to elevate the sweet treat. But there are more ways to enrich this classic quick bread, either in tandem with brown butter or as an alternative. If you worry that you're getting too rich with your additions, just remember that banana bread is practically cake anyway. And make sure to use the right bananas for perfect banana bread — you should choose fruit that's overripe for the best results.

Sour cream, Greek yogurt (plain or vanilla-flavored), and buttermilk are all wonderful additions that will keep your bread super-moist and tender. But to go beyond moisture and aim for true decadence, consider adding a flavorful swirl to the banana bread. A sweetened cream cheese or peanut butter swirl are classic choices for a reason — they're delicious. But using almond butter, chocolate hazelnut spread, mascarpone cheese, or large dollops of pistachio cream will take your bread to new heights. Or try adding a little rum for a lovely warm flavor.

And if you've come this far, why not frost the top? You could make a brown butter cream cheese frosting if you really want to embrace the rich flavor. Or top it with a salted caramel drizzle — you can even use brown butter in this, too.