I always buy bananas with the best of intentions. I’m going to eat one every day for the potassium, they are good for me, and because they are yummy. Well, so long as they aren’t green at all. And so long as they don’t have too much brown on them. And no bruising whatsoever.
Ok. So maybe my intentions aren’t great and I kinda set myself up for succeeding in avoiding them based on my standards. After all, the sweet spot in the middle of all of those “I don’t likes” lasts a whole 5 minutes. And that’s assuming the cashier at the grocery store doesn’t bury them beneath boxes and other injurious items.
Next plan of attack: make the kids eat them. They have lower standards (except my middle son who has unreasonable standards for everything except pizza). This is another plan that rarely works.
Backup to end all backups…
Banana bread!!! And because of my aforementioned habit of procrastination in eating these lovely fruits, I force myself to not pop them in freezer for “later” baking. Just do it now. Like right now, Kara.
Banana bread reminds me of childhood. I remember my mom coming home from a friend’s house with little loaves of foil-wrapped deliciousness. Some were zucchini bread (another FAVORITE of mine) and some were banana bread. I was completely content with either as they were my two favorite summertime snacks. Moist, soft, and slightly sticky on the outside from being wrapped while a touch warm. Mmmmmm!!!!!
The only thing that could keep me from popping a whole loaf into my mouth were nuts. Don’t put crunchy things in my soft, moist, sweet treats. Same goes for brownies. Keep your nuts to yourself.
There seems to be a trend emerging here.
I digress. Banana bread. Focus, Kara, focus.
Yet again there were bananas that had been uneaten in my kitchen and I was determined to not allow them to go to waste this time. But standard banana bread would not do if I was going to share it on a cake and sweets blog. It had to be spruced up. Like fancy and decadent. After dinner or tea time dessert quality. The kind you shouldn’t eat for breakfast (though I may have done that after taking these pictures this morning).
So I bumped up the awesomeness quotient of my standard recipe and I’m sharing it with you. I am not responsible for any excess consumption of caramel sauce (yep, we’re gonna make it from scratch) or for morning sugar highs and crashes requiring more milk chocolate caramel banana bread. That’s all on you. 😉
| Prep Time | 45 minutes |
| Cook Time | 60 minutes |
| Passive Time | 2 hours |
| Servings |
loaf
|
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp Baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- .5 tsp Kosher salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- .5 cup Vegetable oil
- .5 cup brown sugar
- .5 cup White Sugar
- 2 each eggs, large at room temperature
- 3 each very ripe bananas mashed with a fork
- .25 cup buttermilk see notes to make your own
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
- .5 cup milk chocolate baking chips
- .75 cup granulated white sugar
- 3 Tbsp Water
- 6 Tbsp unsalted butter cut into 1/2" pieces
- 1 cup Heavy Cream
- 1 Tbsp bourbon vanilla bean paste or extract
- .5 tsp sea salt I like Himalayan
- pinch cream of tartar
Ingredients
Banana Bread
Caramel Sauce
|
Rate this recipe!
|
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9" x 5" loaf pan. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.
- In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, blend the oil and sugars until combined.
- Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl between each addition.
- Add the bananas, buttermilk and vanilla and mix to incorporate.
- Remove from the stand mixer and using a spatula slowly stir in the dry ingredients just until barely incorporated.
- Gently stir in the chocolate chips being careful to not overmix.
- Pour into prepared loaf pan and drizzle caramel sauce over top avoiding the edges near the pan. Only use about 1/3 of the mixture you made.
- Bake for 60-70 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. The loaf will be a rich brown color. Let rest for 20 minutes in the pan then carefully turn the loaf out and onto a cooling rack.
- Drizzle half of remaining caramel onto the loaf while it is warm.
- Bring heavy cream to simmer over medium heat in a small sauce pot. Leave on stove top to use shortly.
- Add sugar, cream of tartar and water to a 3-4 quart, heavy bottomed sauce pot over medium high heat. Stir together once being sure to not splash the sugar onto the sides of the pot.
- Allow to come to boil. Wash down the sides of the sauce pot twice with a wet pastry brush to flush any sugar crystals down into the cooking sugar.
- As the sugar cooks it will begin to turn amber colored. If it's becoming amber unevenly or in just one spot, gently swirl the pan (do not stir) to even out the color. Once the pot is a deep, rich amber remove from the heat.
- Add the heavy cream and stir with a whisk vigorously. The sugar and cream will foam, and increase in volume and release a lot of steam. Be cautious to not burn your hands. Add butter pieces and vanilla once the cream is fully whisked in.
- Pour into a heat proof container and allow to cool completely before using.
I like to make my own buttermilk since I don't use enough to purchase a quart at a time.
To make a 1/4 cup as called for in this recipe, I add 1/2 tsp white vinegar to a 1/4 cup measuring cup. Then I fill the rest of the cup with lowfat milk. Let it sit for 5 minutes before adding to your recipe.
To make a full cup of buttermilk this way, start by adding 1 Tbsp of vinegar to a 1 cup measure and fill the rest with lowfat milk.
I’m looking forward to trying this! I’m assuming the Step #4 is a mistake though, no? Not sure how it would turn out if I baked the bread and then added eggs ?
Bahahahaha! Good catch, and thank you! 🙂
I would like to try but how do I convert to English measures please? Also is all purpose flour plain flour?
Yes. All purpose is plain flour there. Not self-rising. As for converting, you can use an online converter from our volume measures to metric volume measures.