About a year and a half ago, I discovered the joys of baking with browned butter, when designing my Next Level Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. It’s amazing stuff! Not only does it smell fantastic when included as an ingredient in something you are baking, but it gives such depth of flavor! Browned butter is made by cooking butter in a saucepan until the milk solids become toasted and brown in colour. When added to a baked item, it produces an underlying nuttiness in the item.
Banana muffins are a favourite in our house so I decided to work on a recipe that I got from my mother-in-law update it with some browned butter. I modified the recipe in a few ways. I used browned butter instead of oil, I increased the sour cream by 1 tbsp for extra moisture, I decreased the sugar a bit, added vanilla, added some cinnamon and nutmeg to complement the nutty flavour, and used both baking powder and soda for a more even rise. The resulting muffins were delicious!
I tried the recipe a few times before posting. One time I swapped in some chocolate chips for the nuts that I had been using and one time I baked it as a loaf at 350F for about 60 minutes. The resulting loaf was moist and not too dense. I do prefer the muffins though, just because they bake faster.
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 F/205 C. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan.
- Heat the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly until the solids brown, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and let cool slightly.
- In a large bowl, combine mashed bananas, lemon juice, sugar, egg, sour cream, vanilla and browned butter.
- In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
- Stir pecans or chocolate chips into the flour mixture, if using.
- Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined.
- Divide the batter between the cups of the greased muffin tin.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes until the muffins are well risen and golden. Let cool at least 5 minutes in the pan before removing the muffins.
I’ve never cooked with browned butter but it sounds like a lovely ingredient