Brown Butter Butterscotch Banana Bread …with Greek Yogurt?

It’s official. My Greek yogurt obsession is out of control. It’s become almost a game. “Can I put Greek yogurt in this?” The latest challenge was born out of Neil’s insistence that I find a use for the two black bananas in our freezer. We have only our tiny refrigerator freezer and it is stuffed to the gills. These bananas had shifted positions four or five times and he was tired of making room for them.

That and I think he was hoping they’d end up in banana bread. Isn’t that the best home for wayward forgotten bananas?

Ingredients:

2 medium bananas (or 1 cup mashed banana)
½ cup butter softened
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup cake flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
¾ tsp salt
½ cup greek yogurt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
½ cup butterscotch chips

I’d never roasted bananas. They came out sounding like they were about to pop!

Some yummy Chobani

Just missing the butterscotch chips…

The first slice, end pieces are the best.

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Roast bananas with peel for 15-20 minutes. If you want to skip this step, simply mash the bananas (you’ll need 1 cup of mashed banana). Grease an 8″ x 4″ loaf pan.
2. In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Carefully move the saucepan around to melt and move the butter, but do not stir. Allow to foam until it subsides, then remove from heat and set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, mix together brown sugar, salt and sugar. Stir, adding browned butter, Greek yogurt and vanilla. Stir until combined but don’t overmix. Add peeled roasted bananas and mix for 1-2 minutes.
4. In a separate bowl, mix together the flours, cinnamon and baking soda, mixing until combined. Slowly add flour to the wet mix while stirring. Mix until the bananas are unseparated and throughly blended throughout the mix.
5. Add butterscotch chips and slowly fold them into the batter until evenly distributed. Make sure to taste test a few for quality. Safety first.
5. Pour into greased loaf pan and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Cool completely before removing from loaf pan and onto a cooling rack.

The combination of Greek yogurt and Cake flour give this bread a fine, soft, almost creamy crumb that is only made smoother by the butterscotch chips. Of all the banana cake recipes I’ve made thus far, it is my favorite. This bread lasted less than two days, evidence of both how good it is and how gluttonous Neil and I are.

While I have you all here, I wanted to tell you about a Twitter project I’m excited to be involved in. It’s called #Cookchat, and it’s a casual conversation about food and cooking. I am co-hosting with the awesome Kate of The Guavalicious Life, and although there are tons of food-related Twitter hashtag conversations, ours really is a conversation, not a structured Q+A.

This week we’re meeting early (3pm CST) to check in on your New Year’s food resolutions before the Oscars, but I hope you’ll consider joining us every Sunday at 7:30pm CST for a range of special topics, meal ideas, and what’s cooking in your kitchen this week.