Hi friends!
Boy, has it been a week. It started out rough with high winds in Denver, resulting in fallen trees and power outages across the city. After 24-hours without power, I had to say goodbye to every dairy product in our fridge, and let me tell you, that was a lot of money down the drain. My car battery died. We have ants in the house. My instagram was hacked. Thank you to all the people who let me know that someone on my account was trying to sell you guys Ray-Bans. Why is it always Ray-Bans?!
I’m not sure if everything was off-kilter because of the eclipse or what, but needless to say, I’m thankful it’s Friday. And what better way to spend a Friday than to send all my friends and family a new recipe.
This week, the recipe I have for you is Buttermilk Banana Bread.
Now, the thing about banana bread is most people only ever make it when they realize their bananas are a day or two past their prime. It’s not usually the recipe you’re planning on making — it’s what you do when you don’t want those two or three overripe bananas to go to waste. And because of that, I tend to use banana bread recipes that rely heavily on pantry ingredients. Things you always have around — or should have around, in my opinion. Things like all-purpose flour, chocolate chips, baking powder, baking soda and granulated sugar.
But I’ll admit — this recipe has a few exceptions to what I’d categorize as ‘pantry ingredients,’ reason being — it’s the best banana bread. I will never claim buttermilk or demerara sugar should “always” be in your home because they’re not always in mine. But when there’s a perfect storm, and I have overripe bananas, buttermilk and demerara sugar all under my roof at the same time, I am one happy girl. It’s my preferred banana bread, so much so that if I have a few brown nanners lying around, I’ll go buy buttermilk just to make this.
Go ahead and give it a whirl — and I promise to also one day write a buttermilk-free banana bread, so that you always have a banana bread recipe at-the-ready, even if you don’t have buttermilk in the fridge.
Here’s what you’ll need —
Nonstick cooking spray or softened butter
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
3 overripe bananas, mashed
¼ cup buttermilk
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
⅛ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
½ - ¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips — honestly, use as many chocolate chips as you’d like. If you want more, add more! If you don’t believe in chocolate chips in your banana bread, skip it
Demerara sugar
Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees F. As your oven heats up, grease a loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray or a knob of softened butter, using a paper towel — or your hands — to spread and cover the pan.
In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or large bowl with a hand mixer, add the softened butter and sugar. Mix on medium-high speed, until butter is fluffy and light, about 3-5 minutes. This step is often referred to as “creaming.” The longer you cream your butter and sugar, the fluffier, lighter the mixture will be. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula.
Add eggs, mashed bananas, buttermilk and vanilla. Mix on low to avoid splatter. Mix for a minute or two, or until combined. Again, stop the mixer and scrape down the sides with a spatula.
Turning your mixer on and off, add in the flour, ½ cup at a time, to avoid flour from going everywhere. Add in the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix on low until everything is combined, and it looks like cake batter. Don’t over mix at this step. Mixing for too long will make your banana bread tough.
Remove your mixing bowl from the stand mixer, and using a rubber spatula, hand mix-in your chocolate chips, until chocolate chips are evenly dispersed.
Transfer the batter to your greased loaf pan. Top with a handful of demerara sugar, so the top of the banana bread will have a crunchy, sweet top.
Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Pro tip: Whenever I bake something, I like to put the baking pan, whether it’s a loaf pan or pie dish, on a larger cookie sheet, to avoid any spillage burning on the bottom of your oven.
Remove the banana bread from the oven, and let cool for 15 minutes before slicing and serving! Slab a knob of butter on there to make it even yummier.
Now, let’s say you bought buttermilk to make this recipe, and now you have all this leftover buttermilk and no idea what else to do with it. Well, I’ve got you covered. Here’s some ideas:
Whip up some homemade ranch — or you can’t go wrong just using a Hidden Valley Ranch packet with some buttermilk
For what’s been giving me life this week, it’s been smoking chickens on the Traeger. I never knew I’d be a Traeger girl but here we are. I can’t get enough of it. It was finishing Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent (5 stars!) and starting Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. It was the Buttermilk Pie from American Elm, the king salmon from Sushi Ronin, and the brown sugar cinnamon ice cream from High Point Creamery. It’s having cut-flowers in the house because it finally feels like Spring.
Lastly, it was finding a forever home for our sweet boy Benny. Saying goodbye was heart wrenching, but at the end of the day, we’re so happy that he has an amazing new family, big back yard and lots of new toys. We love you Benny Boy!
Wish I was with you,
Maddie