Baked Banana Doughnuts with Brown Butter Glaze

Posted on May 7, 2014 by Veronica

My sister-in-law gave me a doughnut pan for Christmas two years ago…maybe three. It’s what I asked for, had wanted for years, and yet I only used it to bake the doughnut mix she gave me with it until now! What is UP with that?

I was Pinteresting (yes, I’m allowed to turn nouns into verbs haha) and came across Shelby’s baked banana doughnuts with a browned butter rum glaze and I HAD TO HAVE IT RIGHT THEN…or at least my own version of it. :) I had my nearly forgotten doughnut pan, a single overripe banana, and the baby was taking a nap – it was like the stars aligned and God smiled down on me in that instant. I got to work and boy oh boy. These were quick to make and so delicious! Brown butter and banana are a match made in heaven. Actually, browned butter makes everything better, don’t you think?

Baked Banana Doughnuts with Brown Butter Glaze

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

1 cup (4 ¼ oz / 120 g) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
1 large (about 5 ½ oz / 156 g without peel) overripe banana
1 large egg
¼ cup (2 ¼ oz / 64 g) buttermilk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
¼ cup (2 oz / 58 g) light brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup (4 oz / 113 g) powdered sugar
1-3 teaspoons milk, as needed to thin the icing

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a 6-well doughnut pan with oil and set aside (I wipe off the top with a paper towel to reduce the amount of baked-on oil build-up on there but that is your call). Whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a medium sized bowl. In a separate smaller bowl, mash the banana, then whisk in the egg, buttermilk, oil, and sugar. Add to the dry ingredients and stir together until just combined (a few small flour lumps are OK). You can either use a spoon to fill the doughnut pan or put the batter in a ziploc bag and snip a corner to squeeze the batter into the pan. Fill each well 3/4 full. If you have extra, you can make it into mini muffins or wait until the first batch is done baking to make a couple more doughnuts. Bake doughnuts for 12-15 minutes, or until golden and doughnuts bounce back when lightly pressed. Turn out onto cooling rack to cool completely.

While doughnuts are cooling, brown the butter. Place in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the solids separate and turn a chocolate brown color. Remove from heat and add the powdered sugar and enough milk to get a glaze consistency (it doesn’t take much. Dip the tops of each doughnut in the warm glaze with the cooling rack over the sink so the glaze can drip off as you finish dipping each one. If you have extra, you can put it in a ziploc bag or disposable piping bag and snip a corner to drizzle over the doughnuts because extra glaze makes them extra good! :)

Recipe source: adapted from The Life and Loves of Grumpy’s Honey Bunch

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Posted in Breakfast, Sweets and tagged baked doughnuts, banana, brown butter, browned butter, glaze, recipe. Bookmark the permalink.

Banana Bread Bars

Posted on October 4, 2013 by Veronica

This year I only had a couple hours to prepare the food I was going to take to the Pig Roast so I didn’t have time to make some really razzlin’ dazzlin’ cupcakes like I had planned. I went to the recipes I had saved on Pinterest and decided on these bars because they were pretty quick to make, could feed a crowd, and I had some overripe bananas ready to be used. While many were disappointed I didn’t bring cake or cupcakes (I guess by now I’m kind of known for them), most of the pan was eaten by the time the meal was over (and there were tons of desserts) so apparently they weren’t too disappointed. :)

I got the best reaction from the teenage girls, for some reason – they flipped for them. There were two short rows left when we were cleaning up after the meal, and I asked one of them if she wanted any more before I put them in my trunk and she took another three, saying she’d already eaten five. I’d say that’s a pretty good endorsement.

The bars have a nice, moist crumb, and really good classic banana bread flavor, but the thing that makes them stand out is the browned butter icing. I knew brown butter and bananas was a good match, and that’s why I worked so hard to perfect my recipe for Brown Butter Banana Bread. But I think that the flavor comes through so much better when used in an icing on top of the bread. Oh soooo delicious!

Banana Bread Bars

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

Bars:
1 ½ cups (10 ½ oz) granulated sugar
1 cup (8 oz) sour cream
½ cup (4 oz / 1 stick) butter, softened
2 eggs
1 ¾ cups (15.25 oz, peeled) over-ripe bananas, mashed (about 3 or 4)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups (8 ½ oz) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
½ cup (2 oz) chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Frosting:
½ cup (4 oz / 1 stick) butter
4 cups (1 lb) powdered sugar
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
about 3 tablespoons milk or half and half

Heat oven to 375F. Grease and flour a 10×15 jelly roll pan or line with parchment paper (for thicker bars use a 9×13 pan and bake longer). Beat first four ingredients until creamy. Blend in bananas and vanilla for one minute. Add dry ingredients and blend for one minute. Stir in nuts if desired and spread in pan. The pan will be very full but it’s OK, it won’t rise over the edge during baking. Bake 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool on a wire rack while you make the frosting.

For the browned butter frosting: Heat butter in saucepan over medium heat past the melting point until it is boiling and a delicate brown, stirring constantly. The solids will separate and turn into chocolate brown flecks at the bottom of the pan. Remove from the heat and immediately add the remaining ingredients. This should be thicker than a glaze and thinner than frosting. Using a spatula, smooth over the top of the Banana Bread Bars immediately. The frosting will be easier to spread once it’s on the warm bread.

If not serving the same day, let the pan sit out until cool and the frosting is dry to the touch, then cover with foil until ready to serve. These will last several days at room temperature, but I found them even more delicious when served cold from the fridge!

Recipe source: The Girl Who Ate Everything

Nutty for banana bread? You might go ape for these…

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread {Low Fat, Low Sugar}

Buttermilk Banana Bread (my favoritest favorite!)

Virginia Street Banana Nut Bread (multiple blue ribbons winner!)

*You may have noticed I’ve started to include links to older recipes at the bottom of each recipe post. Since I’ve built up quite a collection of recipes on my blog that many new readers have never seen, I’d been thinking about sharing recipes from my archives on a certain day each week like my girl Marsha. But I’m having so much fun rehashing them this way, because I get to search my own archives like a treasure hunter and see if I can come up with three similar recipes to the one I’m posting. So far I’ve been able to do it fairly easily, and I hope you guys enjoy these oldies along with the newbies! :)