Honey Spelt Banana Bread with Brown Butter

This delicious spelt banana bread is made with honey, a hint of brown sugar and cinnamon, whole grain spelt flour and a nutty almost molasses flavor from the brown butter. A not overly sweet banana bread is perfect for breakfast or a snack at anytime of day.

Yes we are still baking banana bread anytime we have extra overripe bananas. I can only freeze so many bananas for smoothies. Banana bread and banana muffins are requested often.

This recipe was inspired by my banana bread recipes as well as the rainy weather outside. Always love baking on a rainy day.

I made this banana bread with some amazing ingredients from my Fikabröd Bread baking box - spreadable Black & Bolyard brown butter, honey from Atlanta Honey Next Door and Maine Grains spelt flour.

Ingredients

• Bananas - overripe. I weigh in grams since my 3-5 bananas might be a different size than your 3-5 bananas. Use a food scale for baking always and forever, please.
• Eggs - large ones
• Sour Cream - can also use any thick style plain full fat yogurt
• Vanilla Extract
• Brown Butter - I used Black & Bolyard spreadable brown butter. Its the consitency of super soft butter with the most amazing nutty buttery aroma. If you want to make your own brown butter I suggest doing so a day ahead of time, letting it cool back to a solid and stirring it so it is the consistency of soft, room temperature butter. See recipe notes for more details.
• Brown sugar
• Honey - the the bread as well as for a glaze on top.
• Spelt flour - spelt flour has a similar protein amount as regular all purpose flour so it can be a 1:1 swap with no issyes
• baking soda, baking powder, kosher salt and cinnamon

See recipe card for quantities.

Instructions

Weigh your ingredients with a food scale. This will do two things for you:

• Makes sure your bake is accurate and has the same result every time
• Uses less bowls, cups, spoons etc since you can weigh directly into the same bowls

You can make this recipe in two bowls as written in my recipe, I have three here to show the steps. I wipe the butter bowl clean then use that for the flour.

Bananas get mashed then whisked with the sour cream, eggs and vanilla. Brown butter, honey and brown sugar are creamed together. Flour gets whisked with baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

Whisk the butter mixture with the banana mixture

Using a spatula (love my GIR spatulas) to fold the flour in and stirring until there is no streaks remaining.

Don't forget to remove the clips - those shouldn't go in the oven.

OPTIONAL - squeeze a line of soft butter down the middle of the bread for that nice crack. Sometimes its a smaller crack sometimes its bigger.

Another optional step is adding a honey glaze a few minutes before the end of baking and again as soon as the bread is out of the oven. Adds a little layer of sweetness and shine. Love the rich brown color of this spelt banana bread.

Hint: To easily lift banana bread out of the baking pan, or any loaf cake or bread, make sure the parchment overhangs the pan on the long sides by a few inches. You can gently lift with the paper once the bread is cool enough so you don't have to worry about it breaking. Still you want to quickly transfer it to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Variations

I think banana bread on its own is amazing but also a great start for so many variations by adding in other spices, nuts, dried fruit or even chocolate chips!

• Spices - nutmeg, cardamom, clove, allspice
• Nuts - walnuts, macadamia nuts, pecans etc
• Dried fruit - raisins, cranberries, cherries, dates etc
• Chocolate chips - semi-swee, milk, dark, cinnamon or even butterscotch chips

See my Espresso Banana Muffins recipe that can also be easily made into bread. It has espresso powder and cinnamon chips. My Big Island Date Banana Bread has chopped medjool dates.

Equipment

Loaf pan - use a 9x5 pan - anything smaller will overflow. Trust me on this one. I love Wilton, Nordic Ware and USA bake pans.

Food Scale - I have OXO and Escali and I use them every day.

Storage

Since this is a moist quick bread, it should get eaten within the first few days of making it. If you are going to store it wrap tightly in plastic wrap then in foil, in a resealable bag or container with a tight fitting lid. Store up to a week at room temp, up to three months frozen.

FAQ

Related recipes:

Looking for other banana recipes like this? Try these:

Honey Spelt Banana Bread with Brown Butter Recipe:

Honey Spelt Banana Bread with Brown Butter Recipe

Shanna

Spelt banana bread sweetened with honey and a touch of brown sugar, nuttiness from brown butter and finished with a honey glaze

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Cooling 1 hour hr

Total Time 2 hours hrs 20 minutes mins

Servings 8 -10 servings

Equipment

• 9x5 loaf tin

Ingredients

  

• 400 g very ripe bananas,, mashed
• 2 large eggs
• 60 g sour cream or thick full fat yogurt,, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 115 g brown butter, (see notes)
• 120 g honey
• 80 g brown sugar
• 260 g spelt flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• Optional 1-2 tablespoons very soft butter
• Glaze:
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 teaspoon water

Instructions

 

• Heat oven to 350 Deg F. Line a 9x5 loaf pan with parchment hanging over the long sides by a few inches. Clamp the paper down if you need to.
• In a large mixing bowl mash the bananas then whisk in the sour cream, eggs and vanilla.
• In another bowl, cream together the brown butter, honey and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add to the banana mixture and stir until well combined. Wipe out the bowl the butter was in and weigh the flour then add the cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Whisk together then add to the banana mixture, stirring with a spatula until no more streaks of flour remain.
• Pour batter into prepared pan, removing the clamps and smooth out the batter. Optional - add the butter to a piping bag and pipe a line down the middle of the batter. This will get you that nice crack down the middle.
• Bake the banana bread 50-60 minutes. About 10 minutes before the bread is done(around the 50 min mark), combine the honey and water and heat until bubbling, quickly brush over the top of the bread. Keep baking until a skewered poked into the middle comes out clean and the bread bounces back lightly. As soon as the bread is out of the oven brush with remaining honey glaze
• Let the bread cool in the pan for 15-20 minutes then carefully remove to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
• Keep in an airtight container or wrapped in foil at room temperature up to a week.

Notes

If you want to make your own brown butter keep in mind that butter loses volume when browning. 115 grams of butter will end up around 87 grams once browned. About a two tablespoon loss. I suggest starting with at least two extra tablespoons if not more before you brown the butter. I would rather have a little leftover than not enough. My suggestion is to brown 150 g of butter, save any extra brown butter for toast.

To brown the butter, place it in a low sided sauté pan over medium heat. Let the butter melt and foam. It will bubble and sizzle and pop as the water is evaporating and the butter components start to separate. Start stirring around the 8-10 minute mark and look for brown specks to begin forming on the bottom of the pan. Butter will go from brown to burnt really fast if not watched closely. I will stir or whisk the butter at this point to get lots of little browned butter bits. I immediately transfer to a bowl to cool completely. Weigh the butter once cooled.