Indescribably Delicious Banana Bread Recipe

This recipe was found on the Nancy's Kitchen newsletter. While we have modified it somewhat—to reduce the sodium and to further describe the mixing method--this is largely the same recipe.

Ingredients

For the bread:

1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
4 very ripe bananas, mashed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

For the topping:

6 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 cup or more, chopped walnuts or pecans

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1. Cream the one cup butter and granulated sugar together.
2. Add the mashed bananas, eggs, vanilla, and mix well. (The batter will look slightly curdled indicating that the water and fat in the recipe is not combining properly. The flour will buffer the batter and make it smooth.)
3. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, soda and salt. Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture and combine. Add the buttermilk and mix until combined.
4. Divide the batter between two greased and floured 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pans. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until bread pulls away from sides of pan and the bread tests done when a skewer or toothpick is inserted in the center of the loaf. Remove the loaves from the pans and cool on wire racks. Set the pans aside.

For the topping:

1. Place the oven rack at upper 2/3’s level. (One shelf down in our test oven.)
2. Melt the remaining butter in saucepan. Add the brown sugar and milk. Cook the syrup for about five minutes or until it is like a hot caramel sauce, almost soft-ball stage (215 to 220 degrees). Remove the topping from heat and add the chopped nuts. Set the oven to broil.
3. Place the banana bread loaves back in the pans. Spread the nut mixture over the bread loaves, spreading it to all the corners. Place the topped loaves back in the oven under the broiler element and cook until the topping is bubbly and brown. You will need to watch your loaves very carefully, to make sure that the topping does not burn. In our oven, the topping was done in just under two minutes.