browned butter berry banana bread

Well that was fun alliteration. Let's say it again. Browned butter berry banana bread!

There's 50g of white chocolate chips in there too but mentioning that in the title would have spoiled my fun.

This is actually the second time within a week I've baked this loaf and my last bake before these was also banana based. The warmer weather has sent me on a banana baking loop! Within a day or two of buying bananas they seem to turn brown. Not that I'm complaining, I like banana loaf.

For a slight change I decided to brown the butter for this loaf as I love the flavour of browned butter in blondies and figured it would work well in a banana loaf. Sadly I didn't detect much of a difference in flavour, probably because there was enough extra flavour with the berries, cinnamon and vanilla, but occasionally you'd get a little hint of the sweet, biscuity flavour from the browned butter.

I love how banana bread is so simple and easily adaptable. You can substitute and/or chuck in extras to your heart's content. Victoria sponges are fantastic for similar reasons. I nearly didn't bother posting this cake as I have posted a couple of variations of the same recipe already, but the vibrant berries bursting from the cake's surface were too enticing not to photograph. It's also good to remind people not to chuck out dodgy looking bananas. Look at what you can produce with them!

Browned butter berry banana bread

Recipe adapted from Hummingbird Bakery's banana loaf

250g brown sugar (I used half soft light brown sugar, half light muscovado brown sugar)

2 large eggs

2 large brown bananas, weighing roughly 250g

300g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

140g unsalted butter, melted and browned

50g (ish) white chocolate chips (optional! They were lurking in my baking cupboard)

150g mixed berries (I used frozen)

Preheat the oven to 170C/160 Fan/Gas 3 and line a 25 x 12cm loaf tin. Melt the butter in a saucepan and gently cook for about 5 minutes until the white solids turn golden and the butter starts to smell biscuity and sweet. Set aside to cool before adding to the cake mixture.

Whisk together the sugar and eggs for a minute or two until well incorporated and lighter in colour. Add the mashed bananas and vanilla bean paste and mix again. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon then add to the sugar mixture. Mix thoroughly. Pour in the (cooled) melted butter and mix until everything is fully combined. Lightly coat the berries in a small amount flour and stir half of them into the mixture along with the white chocolate drops. Pour the mixture into the loaf tin, level the surface and scatter the remaining berries on top. 

Bake in the centre of the oven for roughly 1hr 15 minutes, checking on the cake after an hour. As the surface was quite brown I lay a piece of baking parchment on top to stop it burning for the last 15 minutes of baking. The loaf is cooked when firm to touch and a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes before turning out to finish cooling on a wire cooling rack.

White chocolate and custard cream browned butter blondies

Well that's certainly a mouthful isn't it?

Last week I was thinking about how oreos are often incorporated into brownies which led me to ponder whether custard creams could be put into blondies. After a quick google image search I noticed nobody had done it. So I made it happen.

After remembering how tasty my last blondies were, I adapted the recipe to use custard creams instead of raspberries. As the recipe link no longer works (why would you remove such a great recipe bbc?) I'll type it up at the end of the post.

I really enjoyed the texture of these blondies. They have that essential crispy, cracked surface and fudgy/chewy texture inside you'd expect from a good blondie or brownie but also an added crunch from the custard cream biscuit chunks. Then there are the delicious, smooth chunks of white chocolate just to punch up the sweet-factor even further. Basically, if you love sweet, vanilla based bakes then you'll love these. They're a real treat.

I also don't think I can go back to making blondies without browning butter. It really does add something. Plus the sweet, biscuity smell of butter while it's browning is pretty addictive. Yay for butter!

White chocolate and custard cream browned butter blondies

Recipe originally from bbc good food's website

200g unsalted butter
150g white chocolate chopped into chunks (I used Lindt as it has a lovely vanilla flavour)
300g light muscovado sugar
3 large eggs (I used duck eggs)
200g plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp good quality vanilla extract
100-125g custard cream sandwich biscuits, broken into chunks

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4 and line a 25 x 22cm tin. (I didn't have the correct sized tin so I used a smaller oblong one and a 7inch square sandwich tin.) Melt the butter in a saucepan and cook gently for about 5 minutes until the white solids turn golden and the butter starts to smell biscuity and sweet. Side aside to cool for 5 minutes. Add half of the white chocolate to the melted butter and set aside again for a few minutes, stirring until combined. Meanwhile, beat together the sugar and eggs for a couple of minutes until thick and pale. Add the flour, salt, vanilla extract and cooled butter mixture and mix together. 

Pour into the tin (or tins) then scatter custard creams and white chocolate chunks on top, pressing them in slightly. Bake for 40-45 minutes until it has a golden crust and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out relatively clean. (Since I used smaller tins my blondies cooked quicker, about 35-40 minutes.) Leave to cool in the tin. It's tempting to dive in straight away but they cut so much easier once cool.

Raspberry and white chocolate blondies Take 2 and oaty biscuits

Determined to find the "perfect" blondie, I surfed the web for another recipe. This recipe from BBC Good Food popped up and although the reviews were quite hit and miss I gave it a go.

They may not be as photogenic as the last blondies, but flavour-wise I definitely preferred these. I loved the golden, crumbly crust and the melt-in-the-mouth almost fudgy inside with gooey chocolate chunks and juicy raspberries. I've talked you into making these haven't I? The only thing to note is that I didn't have the correct size tin so I had to use a slightly smaller one. I still put it in at the same temperature but covered the top of the tray with baking parchment for the last 10 minutes. I also had enough left over batter to fill 4 little bun cases.

I think browning the butter helped with the fudgy flavour, although it did cause me to have a near freak out as I thought I had burnt rather than browned it as there were loads of funny bits in it. I ended up melting more butter, which I didn't need in the end, so I decided to make oaty biscuits with it.

I had forgotten how tasty these syrupy oat biscuits were. We used to make these a lot with Mum when we were little as the recipe is very easy. It's the perfect type of homemade biscuit to have in the tin for when visitors come past. Unfortunately by the time I had finished making these it was late and I had lost all energy to take a good photograph. No attempt to hide the biscuits with the slightly burnt edges or remove the crumb in the foreground!

Oat Shortie Biscuits
Recipe from Mum's little baking book

50g (2oz) lard
50g (2oz) marg
100g (4oz) sugar (I used caster)
1 tsp syrup
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp boiling water
100g (4oz) self-raising flour
100g (4oz) porrage oats

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Since I already had roughly 4oz of melted butter I didn't bother with the lard. I then added the sugar and stirred in the syrup, soda and boiling water. Do not bring to the boil. Add the oats and flour and mix well. Pack together in in teaspoonfuls (or bigger if you want larger biscuits) and place on the tray. I think I had around 8 on a tray, and made roughly 20 biscuits in total. I also added more syrup to the mixture as it wasn't sticking together very well. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden.