Banana Nut Bread with Strawberries, Brown Butter, and Bourbon

Hi, friends! Can you believe that it's already September? I can't. On the plus side, since it's the first Thursday of the month, I'm sharing some financial knowledge over at Makeunder My Life. This month's "finance with intention" post is all about creating a budget for your business. The concepts can also be used in creating a personal budget, so please swing by and take a read.

Now for the main event! Monday was all about freezing your excess produce. Today is another tip for stretching your grocery budget and saving overripe fruit from the trash or compost bin.

Bake it into bread! Other options include baking it in a pie or cobbler, making jam, adding to it to a vinaigrette dressing, making smoothies, or cooking it down in a sauce.

A few Fridays ago, we had a couple bananas ready to bite the dust. There were some other almost-finished items sitting around the kitchen: walnuts, buttermilk, strawberries, and bourbon. If you're thinking what I'm thinking, then it's time to bake banana nut bread with strawberries, brown butter, and bourbon!

Not only is this bread a mash-up of two recipes, making it a Cathy-original, but it was my first foray into brown butter. Check one more item off the list in becoming a card-carrying food blogger. Next up, churning my own butter. I kid....or am I??

This recipe is also super easy in that you can prep everything in one bowl. Fewer bowls mean less to clean...woot woot! You're also saving on your water bill, which is a plus.

If you're looking to earn some major brownie points, slice some of this glorious bread for breakfast in bed. Feel free to substitute the glass of milk for a steaming cup of coffee or your favorite brunch beverage.

Your significant other will thank you.

Just be sure to leave a note saying "do not eat" if you bake it the night before and want to take a picture in the morning :)

Banana Nut Bread with Strawberries, Brown Butter, and Bourbon

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen and Joy the Baker

Ingredients

6 oz (1 and 1/2 sticks) butter, reduced to 4 oz or 1/2 cup of brown butter

2 bananas

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 teaspoons bourbon (optional)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

pinch cloves

pinch salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup buttermilk

2 cups flour

3/4 cup diced strawberries (3 good-sized strawberries)

1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts)

1 strawberry sliced thinly

Directions

Preheat oven to 350*. Grease or butter a loaf pan and set aside.

Brown your butter - per Joy the Baker

Basically, you melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. As the butter heats up, it will begin to foam and crackle. Once the crackling stops, the butter will start to brown. Swirl the pan as the butter cooks. When the butter browns and begins to smell nutty, remove the pan from the heat and transfer the butter to a small bowl. This will stop the cooking process and prevent the butter from burning. Set aside to cool.

With a wooden spoon, mash the bananas and cooled brown butter in a large bowl. 
 
Mix in the brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, and bourbon.
 
Add the spices and sprinkle the mixture with the baking soda and salt. Pour in the buttermilk, mixing everything well.
 
Add the flour, making sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl while mixing. You don't want to find any surprise pockets of flour.
 
Last, fold in the diced strawberries and nuts. Try not to over work the mixture or else the bread will turn out dense.
 
Pour the mixture into the buttered/greased loaf pan. Top with the thinly sliced strawberries.
 
Bake the bread in the oven for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the tester comes out clean.
 
Cool bread in the pan on a wire rack. Remove bread from pan once cooled completely and then slice away!
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I've Gone Bananas

Do you ever crave food? Not in a pregnancy craving sort of way, but when you want to eat something allll the time? I occasionally go through phases when I want to eat the same thing for every meal. Well, maybe not for breakfast. I'm a milk and cereal kind of girl. A few years back it was salads with dried or fresh fruit, fancy nuts, and stinky cheese. Then it was (and still is at times) ordering whatever included avocado or guacamole. Recently, I've been on a big banana kick. Bananas foster cupcakes, banana bread beer, banana nut bread Clif bars, and the most recent addition....bananas foster whoopie pies. With cinnamon buttercream. And rum.

What? You don't add booze to your buttercream? OK, it was Mardi Gras. I figured the whoopie pies needed a little extra kick. One teaspoon was all it took to take these whoopie pies from "whoo" to "whooooooooo!"

This was my first time ever making whoopie pies, so things didn't go quite as planned. Apparently I don't play golf enough to know what a "golf ball sized" portion of batter looks like. My cookies ended up being softball sized. And maybe a little flat. But I don't think anyone was complaining.

PLUS, I had another buttercream breakthrough! I didn't want to drag out the Kitchenaid mixer just to make the frosting, so I used the food processor. I read about it a while back on Smitten Kitchen, but never tried it until now. Oh my gosh...this frosting was incredible! Just throw everything in the food processor and you're good to go. Seriously. It might change your life.

But now, Mardi Gras is over and Lent is here. The whoopie pies are long gone and I won't be eating sweets until the end of April. Fortunately, I found something new to satisfy my banana cravings: this recipe for peanut butter banana bread.

Want a house update? The seller will be making all the changes/fixes we requested from the inspection. We've signed all sorts of paperwork and sent updated financial information. Now we're waiting on final approvals for lending.

Bananas Foster Whoopie Pies
Adapted from Eat Live Run

Makes about 18 whoopie pies

 3 cups all purpose flour
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup canola oil
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups bananas, the riper the better (approximately 2 bananas)
1 tsp baking power
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground white pepper (I added a few grinds of black pepper instead)

In a large bowl, beat together the brown sugar and oil. Add the bananas and eggs and mix well. (I used a potato masher for this step.) Set aside.

In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, and ground pepper.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix.

Scoop (or pipe) golf ball sized portions of batter onto lined baking sheets. Bake for twelve minutes. Let cool thoroughly before sandwiching together with frosting.

Cinnamon Buttercream
Adapted from Eat Live Run

1 stick butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon (I also love cinnamon, so I added more)
2 tsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp rum

Cream together the powdered sugar and butter until smooth (in a stand mixer or food processor). I started with 2 cups of powdered sugar because I wanted to check the sweetness and to try avoiding getting powdered sugar all over the kitchen.

Add the cinnamon, vanilla extract, rum, and milk and whip on high speed until very light and fluffy.

To prepare whoopie pies, pipe (using a pastry bag or plastic bag) small dollops of frosting on a cookie and sandwich another cookie on top. Or be like me and spread a dollop of frosting using a knife. Cookies will stay fresh in a sealed tupperware container for three days but they are best eaten the same day they are baked.
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Banana Split Decision Cupcakes

See also: cupcake compromise

Some of you might be disappointed, but I didn't make the cheddar bacon cupcakes for the Super Bowl. John was really pulling for the banana foster cupcakes. And I still wanted to do something different that related to one of the Super Bowl teams. Unfortunately bacon was a little too different this time around for me. After a little research, a few sources told me that the banana split was invented around Pittsburgh. And I still had some raspberry frosting floating around. So I made banana foster and banana split cupcakes!

And I'm soooo glad I made the banana foster ones. Because I finally mastered buttercream! How? Just use the whisk attachment instead of the paddle attachment on my stand mixer. Why didn't I do that earlier??? Previous recipes either didn't specify or said to use the paddle. I always wondered why, but didn't really second guess.

I used the vanilla buttercream recipe from Eat Live Run (minus the vanilla bean). The recipe was similar to other ones I've used, but Jenna had a picture of the fluffiest frosting on a whisk attachment. I took that as my green light to use the whisk.

And....oh...my...gosh! Glorious, heavenly, fluffy frosting! I'm tempted to put it on everything. But I won't because I'm in a Biggest Loser competition at work.

So how did I execute banana foster and banana split? I baked banana cupcakes (with lemon zest for an extra zip) and frosted the banana foster ones with vanilla and sprinkled the top with cinnamon and nutmeg. The banana split was frosted with raspberry frosting and sprinkled with cocoa powder. Both were topped with sweetened banana chips since they look like little footballs.

How did you spend your Super Bowl? Eat any good snacks or desserts?

Banana cupcakes
From The Joy of Cooking

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Get ingredients to room temperature.

In a food processor, mix together:

2 large ripe bananas
2 Tbsp sour cream

Add and mix well:

2 eggs
2 tsp grated lemon zest
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

In a large bowl, beat on low speed for 30 seconds:

2 c cake flour (OR 2 c - 4 Tbsp regular flour or cornstarch)
3/4 c + 2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Add 1/2 the banana mixture along with:

10 Tbsp butter, softened

Beat on low speed until dry ingredients are moistened. Increase speed to medium and beat for 1 1/2 minutes, scraping sides of bowl as needed. Then gradually add rest of banana mixture. Pour batter into greased or lines cupcake tins (about 2/3 full). Bake until toothpick in the center comes out clean and the cake springs back when lightly pressed, about 12 minutes for mini cupcakes.

Makes 4 dozen mini cupcakes. One batch of the vanilla buttercream should be able to frost 4 dozen minis. If you don't snack too much :)

Vanilla buttercream
From Eat Live Run

1 stick butter, softened
2 cups confectioner’s sugar
1 tablespoon milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat the butter and vanilla bean seeds on high until soft. Add the confectioner’s sugar and beat well. I added the sugar one half cup at a time, tasting each time. That way you can make the frosting as sweet as you want and probably won't use as much sugar. Add milk and vanilla extract and beat on high for about six minutes, until very light and fluffy. (Be sure to use the whisk attachment!) Pipe or spread buttercream on cupcakes.

Sparkle berry buttercream
From Berry Good Cupcakes (makes twice as much as the vanilla buttercream recipe above)

3 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons IZZE sparkling juice, at room temperature
A few tablespoons of raspberry preserves (with or without seeds, I love Smucker's)

With an electric mixer on low, beat the butter until it starts to get fluffier. Then start adding the powdered sugar one cup at a time. Taste it every time. That way you can make it as sweet as you want and probably won't use as much sugar. Mix on low until well blended, and then on medium for another two minutes. Add vanilla and IZZE, beating on medium for another minute. Add a couple of spoonfuls (to taste) of raspberry preserves.

The additional raspberry preserves may make the frosting a little thinner, so add a little more powdered sugar to thicken things up. If this frosting is too thick, add a little more IZZE.
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