Brown Butter Cinnamon Honey Banana Bread and Homemade Cinnamon Butter

Fluffy, golden slices infused with cinnamon brown butter, honey and melty chocolate, serve it warm and toasted with a spread of the rich homemade cinnamon honey butter!

Baking Tips for a Light, Fluffy Banana Loaf

• Use Room-Temperature Ingredients: Make sure the eggs and yogurt are room temperature before mixing. Cold ingredients cause the batter to curdle and the ingredients don’t mix together properly.

• Measure Flour Correctly: Too much flour can make the bread dry, and too little can make it wet and dense.​

• Don’t Overmix the Batter: As always, overmixing develops excess gluten, causing a dense or rubbery loaf. A few small lumps in the batter are perfectly okay! Do not try to achieve a perfectly smooth batter- a perfect banana bread requires a lumpy, slightly ugly looking batter! (Just trust me on this one.)

• Stick to the Recipe’s Banana Quantity: Too much banana weighs down the loaf and makes it sink in the centre​.

• Bake immediately! Letting the batter sit too long allows leavening to weaken. Once it's mixed, put it straight into the oven for best rise.

• Check for Doneness: Insert a long skewer, toothpick, or knife in the center: if it comes out clean or with just a couple of crumbs, the bread is done. If the top is already very brown, but the loaf is not cooked yet, tent the top with foil while finishing the bake​!

• Cooling and Slicing: Allow the bread to cool before slicing; this prevents it from becoming dense. Remember that using a sharp serrated knife produces the the cleanest slices.

Secret little life hack for you if you need to make banana bread but don’t have ripe ones on hand: Put un-ripe bananas in the oven and watch them transform!

I wanted to make this banana bread for a friend I was visiting the next day, but I didn’t have ripe bananas, so I simply put 3 bananas on the bottom shelf of my oven whilst my dinner was cooking in there, and after about 10-15 minutes, they were ripe, soft, and squishy on the inside. As you can see in the picture, they came out very black! It’s the perfect trick and works like a charm every time.

Quick note on ingredients:

1. The recipe calls for un-salted butter, however if you are using salted butter, simply reduce the salt to a very small pinch, or omit it all together.

2. Using a chocolate bar broken into bits always tastes the best in baking compared to chocolate chips made specifically for bakers. I use chocolate chips on top for aesthetic purposes only.

I also made a quick and tasty cinnamon honey butter that pairs perfectly when spread on warm banana bread slices. I put it in this little tub to give to my friend and it was a cute little gift indeed. The butter is optional, but you will be happy if you made it! Feel free to scale down and make half the amount if you don’t want to use so much, and taste it to make sure if fits your preference.

Let’s begin…