RECIPES
Biscoff and Brown Butter Banana Bread
Biscoff Brown Butter Banana Bread
Is Banana Bread over? Has it had its day? I hope not because I created this little beauty and she deserves some attention. She might not be a March 2020 banana bread but she’s just as deserving of love.
I definitely wasn’t a trailblazer in terms of Biscoff alliance, but I’m a committed member of the party. It’s definitely knocked Nutella off the top spot of my ‘Spreads and Preserves’ leaderboard, and that’s saying something. It should come with some sort of addiction warning like on cigarette packets (ok, maybe that’s a bit too far) because I’ve gone through three jars of the stuff this month.
I’ve never been particularly loyal to a banana bread recipe in the past. I’ve tried a fair few, and they all were great, but I wanted to collate my favourite parts into one recipe.
Firstly, brown the butter. Always brown the butter. Brown butter takes regular butter to Wembley lasagne viral voice note levels of good. Niche reference there so if you don’t know what I’m talking about, please google and have a chuckle.
Secondly, adding Biscoff spread INTO the cake itself. Trust me.
Finally, this recipe uses buttermilk to make a more tender cake but greek yoghurt works too if you don’t have any on hand.
Oh, and you all know this, but the blacker the banana, the better the cake (unless it’s mouldy, then you’ve gone way too far). Spotty means sweet and the further you can take it, the better the cake is.
Now, go get your Biscoff on.
Ingredients
100g unsalted butter
75g caster sugar
55g light brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla (or free-pour like a mad man like we all do)
60g buttermilk (or Greek Yoghurt)
1 large or 2 small overripe bananas (approx 150g), mashed
80g plus 3 tbsp Lotus Biscoff Spread
150g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
Method
Brown the butter. Put the butter in a small saucepan and set over medium/high heat. Melt fully and continue to boil away while swirling the pan to avoid burning any of the milk solids that will fall to the bottom of the pan. Continue to cook until the bubbles become a cappuccino-like foam and the butter is deep amber. This will take about 3-5 minutes once boiling. You should be left with around 75g brown butter. Put into a medium heatproof bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer to cool and harden to room temperature.
TIP: you can speed this up by putting the butter in the freezer for about 15 minutes, mixing every 5 minutes until the butter is no longer in a liquid state.
Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/350°F
TIP: use an oven thermometer to make sure your oven is at the right temperature. Oven’s vary a lot and some can be as much as 20°C out which will affect the success of any recipe.
Grease and line a standard 2lb loaf tin with baking paper, leaving an overhang over the sides.
Add the white and light brown sugars to the bowl with the butter and, either using an electric hand whisk or a stand mixer, mix on high for 3-5 minutes until light and fluffy.
Add the egg, egg yolk, buttermilk (or yoghurt), mashed banana, vanilla, and 80g biscoff spread and mix until fully incorporated.
Sift in the dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated. Don’t overmix the batter once the dry ingredients have been added.
Pour into the prepared loaf tin and smooth out so the batter is evenly distributed.
Add teaspoon blobs (it’s the technical term) of the remaining Biscoff spread on top of the batter and swirl using a toothpick to create a snazzy pattern.
Put into the preheated oven and bake for 45-50 minutes. You can test if the cake is done if you insert a cake tester/metal skewer into the middle and it comes out clean.
Place on a cooling rack and let the cake cool in the tin for 15 minutes. Then, using the parchment handles, lift the banana bread out of the loaf tin and let it cool completely (or eat it warm - I won’t judge).
Small Batch Brown Butter, Walnut and Espresso Brownies with a Coffee Crumb
Small Batch Brown Butter, Walnut, and Espresso Brownies with a Coffee Crumb
My first ever recipe. How bloody exciting.
I have a soft spot for all things brown butter and all things coffee so it felt apt for my first recipe creation to contain both.
The first time I tried the American version of coffee cake (a light sponge, usually topped with a streusel/crumble and confusingly not coffee flavoured but designed to be eaten WITH coffee) was making the Coffee Coffee Cake from my all-time favourite cookbook, Dessert Person by Claire Saffitz. The coffee crumble on the top was just the most moreish thing ever and I started to think about how I could use this in other recipes.
I had a search and couldn’t find too many recipes that had a brownie recipe with a crumble topping so that sparked some creativity. And after a couple of attempts, this Small Batch Brown Butter, Walnut, and Espresso Brownies with a Coffee Crumb recipe was born. I have a feeling I will have this recipe in my back pocket for years to come.
This is my kind of brownie - super fudgy and dense. The kind that looks completely uncooked when it comes out of the oven but the fridge works its magic and transforms it into the most decadent treat. Laced with brown butter and coffee, this recipe is rich - but it’s also small batch so it’s impossible to go TOO overboard.
Ingredients
Coffee Crumb
30g plain flour
20g light brown sugar
2 tsp instant coffee
20g unsalted butter
pinch of salt
Brownie Batter
110g unsalted butter
100g dark chocolate (I used 54% cocoa)
1 tbsp instant coffee
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
70g caster sugar
70g light brown sugar
1 large egg
75g plain flour
70g walnuts
Method
Preparation
Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan.
Grease and line a standard 2lb loaf tin with baking paper, leaving an overhang over the sides.
TIP: use an oven thermometer to make sure your oven is at the right temperature. Oven’s vary a lot and some can be as much as 20°C out which will affect the success of any recipe.
Toast the walnuts
Roughly chop the walnuts and place them on a baking tray. Place in the preheated oven for 5-7 minutes until they smell toasty and have browned slightly. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
Make the coffee crumb
While the nuts are toasting, add the flour, light brown sugar, instant coffee, butter, and salt to a small bowl. Rub all the ingredients together with your fingertips until it becomes a sandy texture and holds together when squeezed. Set aside.
Make the brownie batter
Add the chocolate, instant coffee, vanilla, and salt to a medium heatproof bowl.
Brown the butter. Put the butter in a small saucepan and set over medium/high heat. Melt fully and continue to boil away while swirling the pan to avoid burning any of the milk solids that will fall to the bottom of the pan. Continue to cook until the bubbles become a cappuccino-like foam.
Add the brown butter to the bowl with the chocolate and stir until the chocolate is fully melted. Let the mixture cool slightly.
Add the caster sugar and light brown sugar to the chocolate mixture and beat until smooth and velvety.
Add the egg and mix vigorously until combined.
Add the flour and toasted walnuts and fold until just combined.
Put the mixture in the lined loaf tin and even out the batter so it is level.
Sprinkle on the coffee crumb, covering the surface of the brownie.
Bake for 30 minutes. The batter will still have a significant wobble when taken out of the oven.
Place the tin on a rack and leave to cool for 1 hour. Once the tin has cooled down significantly, place it in the fridge for at least four hours, preferably overnight. DO NOT SKIP THE COOLING STAGE. This is part of the process to get a dense, fudgy brownie. Skipping this will mean you just have a molten heap of gooey brownie. Not a bad thing, but not what we are going for here.
Remove the brownie from the tin using the baking paper as handles. Slice eight equal pieces and enjoy!
