Quarantine cooking at it’s finest. Banana bread gets an upgrade with the rich, nutty flavor of browned butter and mini chocolate chips. Adapted from this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 4 very ripe (aka brown) medium bananas
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• ⅓ cup buttermilk
• ¾ cup light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup cake flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips
• Cooking spray

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. To brown the butter: melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat, whisking continuously, until it foams and turns a golden brown, approximately 5 minutes. Remove from heat and pour the butter into a large mixing bowl (scraping with a spatula to get all the delicious brown bits). Let the butter cool completely.
3. Peel and mash the bananas into the bowl with the cooled butter. Whisk in the buttermilk, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla until well combined.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the cake flour, AP flour, baking soda and salt. Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture and stir to combine with a wooden spoon, scraping the sides of the bowl to make sure everything is incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips.
5. Pour the batter into a 9 x 5 loaf pan that’s been greased with cooking spray.
6. Bake for 45 minutes, until the top of the loaf is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean. Around the 30 minute mark, I like to loosely cover the loaf with a piece of tin foil to keep the top from overcooking.
7. Remove from oven and let cool. Slice and serve.