Cardamom and Tea

Brown Butter Banana Bread

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This brown butter banana bread is the kind you’d find in a glass display case at your favorite bakery. It slices up springy and tender with a nice amount of caramelized flavor. That’s because we’re not only browning our butter, we’re also getting a little toffee-ish flavor from brown sugar. And don’t forget to brown some extra butter so you can slather every slice in whipped brown butter.

Jump to the recipe to hit the ground running, or read on for my brown butter best practices. The recipe has you covered even if you’ve never browned butter before. But these 3 tips are good to know if you’re a newbie:

browned butter in a pan
a loaf of brown butter banana bread in the pan

A guide to browning butter:

If you want to become a brown butter black belt, I recommend checking out Cloudy Kitchen’s “Brown Butter 101.” Erin outlines absolutely everything you need to know (and shares her technique of using powdered milk for extra caramelization).

However, you don’t need to be an expert to make this brown butter banana bread. You just need the following 3 brown butter basics. This is all accounted for in the recipe. But in case you’re someone who needs to understand they “why” behind a seemingly arbitrary suggestion, this list is for you:

1. Don’t take your eye off the pan, even for a second.

I was recording a video for this blog post when I suddenly realized that I forgot to set up my mic. I dashed over to the shelf, dashed back, plugged it in… and a mere 20 seconds latter, my butter was burnt. Needless to say, I had to start over.

The bottom line? Brown butter can go from underdone to overdone in just a few seconds. Don’t take your eye off that pot! Have everything you need close at hand, and plan to be glued to the stove.

2. Be prepared to chill it immediately.

So now you know that brown butter doesn’t take long to go from done to burnt. But even once you remove the pan from heat, it can continue cooking from the residual heat of the pan. In fact, the milk solids can sometimes continue cooking from the residual heat of the butter itself, even after you pour it out of the pan.

That’s why it’s important to have a way to bring down the temperature quickly. In this recipe, I have you immediately add it to the mashed banana. So don’t skip that first step where I tell you to mash the banana! If you have your bananas ready to go, you won’t be peeling them while your butter is burning.

3. Use low heat the first time you try it.

If you’re a pro at making brown butter, you can easily get away with medium heat. But if you’re new, start out lower than you’d think. It will take longer at lower heat, but you’ll have more control over the final level of browning.

a loaf of brown butter banana bread
sliced brown butter banana bread

A few useful links:

  • I’ve got a growing collection of favorite banana bread recipes. Some feature fun flavor variations and some are adapted to meet dietary restrictions (dairy-free, egg-free, etc.).
  • I’ve also got a whole lot of great loaf cakes, in case you’re trying to make more frequent use of that 8×4 inch pan.
  • My guide to avoiding over-mixing is essential for making the best brown butter banana bread. (But really, it’s essential for any banana bread or other quick bread!)
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Brown Butter Banana Bread

sliced brown butter banana bread
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  • Yield: 8 slices

Ingredients

  • 1 cup [240 g] mashed banana from about 3 very overripe bananas
  • 12 Tbsp [170 g] unsalted butter*
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2/3 cup [130 g] packed brown sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
  • 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt or table salt
  • 1 1/2 cups [200 g] all purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 ripe banana, split lengthwise (optional)

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350° F [180° C].
  2. Butter an 8 x 4 inch [20 x 10 cm] loaf pan.**
  3. Place the mashed bananas in a medium mixing bowl and set near the stove. Don’t skip your step or you’ll risk burning your butter.
  4. Brown the butter: Place the butter in a wide light-colored skillet over medium heat. As soon as the butter melts, reduce the heat to low or medium-low. Let it gently bubble stirring constantly (and keeping a close eye on it) for about 4 to 5 minutes.*** It is done once it’s amber (sort of the color of whiskey) with brown flakes. Once it’s done, pour directly onto the mashed bananas and stir together.
  5. Add the eggs, brown sugar, vanilla (if using), and salt to the mixing bowl and whisk together until completely incorporated.
  6. In a large mixing bowl, whisk or sift together the flour, baking soda, and baking powder.****
  7. Add the wet mixture to the flour mixture and stir to combine. Do not over-mix (stop mixing as soon as there are no dry pockets of flour).
  8. Spoon the mixture into the loaf pan.
  9. Place the banana halves cut-side-up on top of the loaf (if using).
  10. Bake for about 1 hour. Check for doneness by inserting a toothpick or wooden skewer into the center of the loaf. If it comes out with batter, it needs more time, but if it comes out with just some crumbs, it’s ready to take out.
  11. Remove from the pan and cool on a rack for at least 30 minutes before cutting and serving.

Notes

* If using European butter, start with 10 Tbsp [140 g] instead. Whether you’re using US butter or European butter, you should end up with 130g (just shy of 2/3 cup) of melted browned butter. Feel free to weigh it if you’re unsure. European butter has a higher percentage fat and lower percentage water when compared to US butter. We cook off all the water in this recipe, so you will need less European butter than US butter to end up with the same amount of brown butter.

** To make this into muffins instead of a banana bread loaf, place 9 muffin liners in a muffin tin (homemade parchment liners or store bought paper ones). If using parchment ones, butter them lightly. Evenly distribute the batter between the 9 liners, then top each with a 1/2 in [13mm] banana slice. Bake for about 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

*** If you’re using a wide skillet, things will move more quickly than in a stout saucepan. You can use any pan you’d like (as long as it is not dark), but note that it will brown more slowly in a squatter pan. The timing also depends on your stove, so depend on your nose and eyes. Do not depend on a timer.

**** If you want to save on dishes, place a fine mesh sieve over a paper towel and add the flour, baking soda, and baking powder to the sieve. Sift the dry ingredients directly onto the wet ingredients (and don’t forget the dust that filtered onto the paper towel too).

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Eggless Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Most eggless chocolate chip cookies are soft and cakey. But not these—they’re thin, chewy in the center, and crisp around the edges. And the more you know about how cookies work, the odder it seems that most other eggless cookies tend to be puffy and cakey. The thing is, making an eggless cookie cakey is not playing to its strengths. In fact, guess what tends to make a cookie cakier? Adding an extra egg,¹ not adding less egg. So why fight it?

Let’s not treat a missing egg as a problem to be solved. It’s a bug, not a feature! Leaving out the egg actually gives us a whole new set of advantages. Without it, we can achieve a texture that’s delightfully thin (rather than puffy), chewy in the center (rather than tender), and crisp around the edges (rather than cakey). By letting eggless chocolate chip cookies be their authentic self, we end up with something that’s not just good for eggless cookies, but just plain good. So let’s stop trying to make fetch happen, and learn to embrace that lack of egg.

Jump to the recipe to hit the ground running or read on for a few testimonials + an ingredient breakdown.

egg-free chocolate chip cookies
egg-free chocolate chip cookies

What people are saying

(…around my apartment and my friends’ apartments)

I tested this recipe more times than was strictly necessary, so I brought batches of cookies with me wherever I went for a couple weeks.

  • A friend told me these were the best cookies she has ever had (😳💕)
  • My neighbor told me they were better than cookies from most bakeries (🥰)
  • I served these at my monthly art hangout, and people were surprised to learn that they were egg-free.
egg-free chocolate chip cookies
egg-free chocolate chip cookies

Ingredient breakdown: eggless chocolate chip cookies

Here are my tips for tweaking this recipe:

The chocolate chips:

I am partial to milk chocolate chips, but I understand that semi-sweet is standard and what most people prefer. You do you! If you prefer dark chocolate, that would be great here too. As long as you choose a chocolate chip that you want to eat little handfuls of, you can’t go wrong.

Just don’t forget to have a few extra on hand to add to the outside of your dough balls. This ensures that every cookie winds up visibly chocolatey.

The dairy (milk and butter):

While I haven’t tried it, you can likely substitute unsweetened soy milk in place of whole milk without the recipe changing much. However, I would not try to substitute another milk (almond and oat are too structurally different from whole milk, and cookie recipes require precision).

I’m less confident about the butter and do not recommend substituting a vegan version. In general, I don’t recommend trying to make these cookies dairy-free, and instead recommend making a vegan cookie recipe, like these (which sound fantastic).

Brown sugar:

You can use either light or dark brown sugar. If you use dark brown sugar, the cookies will be slightly chewier and will have a more caramelly taste.

Sea salt:

Maldon is the GOAT for sprinkling on cookies. But you can use whatever sea salt you’d like. Finer ones will dissolve a bit during baking. Coarser ones should be used in moderation (it’s easy to over-season with chunkier salts).

I like to salt cookies right before they go in the oven, so that the salt really sticks to them. But you do you. You don’t absolutely need to top them with salt, but it will make them taste like they are from a bakery. If you skip the topping, you may want to add a tiny bit more salt to the dough to make sure it is not bland—when I know I’m going to be sprinkling on loads of sea salt, I don’t add quite as much to the dough as I would otherwise.

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Eggless Chocolate Chip Cookies (chewy-crisp)

egg-free chocolate chip cookies
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  • Yield: 27 large cookies

Ingredients

  • 2 sticks [225g] cool room temperature butter
  • 1 cup  [200g] packed brown sugar
  • 1 cup [200g] granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp [5g] table salt
  • 1/4 cup [60g] whole milk
  • 2 tsp [10g] vanilla extract
  • 3 cups [390g] all purpose flour
  • 3/4 tsp [4g] baking soda
  • 1 1/4 tsp [5g] baking powder
  • 1 1/2 cups [250 g] chocolate chips
  • Sea salt for sprinkling (optional)
  • Extra chocolate chips for decorating

Instructions

  1. Place the butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.* Beat together at medium-high speed until very light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
  2. Add half the milk to the butter/sugar mixer and beat at medium speed for about 15 seconds, just until incorporated. Add the other half of the milk and continue mixing until very light and fluffy, about 30 more seconds. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a flexible spatula. Add the vanilla extract and beat for another 10 seconds, just to combine.
  3. Add the flour, baking soda, and baking powder to the bowl and mix everything together at low speed, just until it forms a uniform dough (about 15 to 30 seconds). Scrape the bottom of the bowl to make sure it is fully incorporated, but do not over-mix.
  4. Let the dough rest** in the fridge for 30 minutes, up to 48 hours.
  5. Preheat the oven to 350°F [180°C] while your dough chills, and line a few sheet pans with parchment.
  6. Roll the dough into 50g balls (a scant 1/4 cup, or a size 1.75 oz/size 24 disher).
  7. Space the balls evenly on the prepared sheet pans. Smash them slightly with the heel of your hand, just so toppings will not roll off. Add a few extra chocolate chips to the outside to make sure some are visible. Sprinkle with sea salt.
  8. Bake for about 12 to 13 minutes***, working in batches. They’re done when the edges are set and the centers are still very soft but not liquid. Slide the parchment onto the counter to cool.

Notes

*: If you do not have a stand mixer, you can use a hand mixer with the egg beaters attached.

**: It doesn’t matter whether they actually chill through—the key here is resting time. Thirty minutes makes a difference, but longer is even better. During resting, the flour and sugars hydrate, which results in cookies with a bakery-quality texture. If you skip this step, your cookies will turn out fine, but they won’t quite live up to their potential.

***: 14 minutes will yield cookies that are crisp at the edges and chewy in the center after cooling. If you like your cookies well-done (crisp throughout with a snap), let them go for another minute or two. If you do not measure your dough balls carefully or if your oven is not well-calibrated, your bake time might be different, so keep an eye on the first batch.

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Notes:

1. When I say that adding an extra egg will make a cookie cake-ier, I am not suggesting you just go adding extra egg to a cookie recipe willy-nilly. It requires a few other careful adjustments and testing. It’s just that most cakey cookie recipes will include a higher ratio of egg than a thin and chewy cookie recipe.