Brown Butter Banana Bread

My mother had some bananas she'd forgotten about and was about to throw them out. They were black, and the skin gave just by the pressure of holding them. The aroma coming off of them was so banana it was almost artificial. But in the back of my mind I remembered something Alton Brown said once. He talked about how for banana nut bread you needed very, VERY ripe bananas -- basically anything short of fuzzy. I snatched them up and toted them home with me.

And then they sat on my counter for another three days as I insisted I was going to make bread. I think by yesterday even my stalwart John was becoming skeptical they'd end up as anything but garbage.

But today, fighting a broken A/C, waiting on the trim man again, unpacking more boxes, I stopped and said, "I am going to make that bread."

((You may also hear me refer to this as Minion Bread because I'm slightly obsessed with Despicable Me. I'm so excited: They're making a Minions Movie for release next Christmas!!))

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 large eggs
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 overripe bananas
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts

Directions:

Set the eggs out on the counter and preheat the oven to 350F. Grease and flour a loaf pan.

In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium high heat. Once completely melted, stir gently but constantly until foam begins to turn a deeper golden-tan color but not actually brown. Remove from heat and pour into a bowl to stop the cooking process. I'm sorry I didn't get any pictures of this part, but a fabulous explanation of the process can be found HERE. Allow the butter to cool.

Mash the bananas and the sugar together until almost a liquid.

Crack the eggs into the cooled butter and whisk together with salt and vanilla extract.

Whisk the butter mixture into the sugar-banana goop. Sift together the flour and baking powder. Add it to the wet ingredients, taking care not to over beat.

Fold in the nuts if you want them. You could put up to a full cup, though I usually prefer half a cup. Any type of nut is fine, though walnut is more traditional. Since this is usually a spur of the moment bread for me, I end up using sliced almonds a lot because I always have those on hand. Chopped pecans are great, too.

Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out (mostly) clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes before removing and allowing to cool on a cookie rack.

If you wanted to get even fancier than browned butter, replace the vanilla extract with the scraped out seeds and insides of a vanilla bean. For a nuttier flavor without the nuts, try replacing 1/2 the flour with whole wheat flour.

To download the 4x6 recipe card, CLICK HERE.

French Toast Casserole

Ingredients:

• 10 slices bread
• 8 large eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/8 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F.

Cut or tear bread into small pieces. I cut mine into nine equal cubes. I also used old, stale bread. This is the perfect way to use it up before it gets rock hard or moldy. Grease a casserole dish and toss the bread pieces in. As you can see from the picture I made two casseroles, one to eat and one to freeze.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, sugar and cinnamon. Whisk well to break up any clumps in the cinnamon and to break up the albumin of the eggs.

Pour egg mixture evenly over bread. Gently mix bread to completely coat in the mixture.

Cover dish with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for an additional 20-30 minutes, until bread has risen and egg mixture is fully cooked.

Makes 5-6 servings.

To download the 4x6 recipe card, CLICK HERE.

Welcome Home

It's been a busy few weeks. Heck, it's been a busy few months. August is here and we're very nearly completely moved in. I'm still decorating, of course. And most of the furniture for the man cave hasn't made its way over yet since John's hand is stitched up. He's out of commission when it comes to furniture for another month. However, we are living here full time and have even been entertaining guests.

The project for today really completed things. Apparently the postmaster had a word with my dad about the fact that we still didn't have our mailbox up. Oops. So, that's what we did this morning. Many thanks to John's dad for digging through all that gravel! We weren't overly sure what the regulations were, so we haven't cemented it into place just yet. Once we're sure this is where it's going to stay, we'll make it more permanent and I'll plant some lovely climbing flowers around the base. Suggestions for plants are welcome in the comments section.

Speaking of plants, I also intend to plant a river birch between the front door and the master bedroom windows, opposite the cedar tree. My hope is that, much like at my parents house, the tree will quickly shoot up and shade the front porch. Our house faces west and in the evenings the front door becomes burning-hot -- not something pleasant to come home to. I'm doubly excited because river birches are one of my favorite types of trees. Much better than pine trees. :-)