Brown Butter & Black Sesame Banana Bread

I keep saying to myself – I need to make you all a proper, basic, banana bread. And then I keep doing stuff like this where I make another elaborate-but-doable-but-weirdly-unique-because-I-can’t-be-generic version of the recipe because I can’t HELP MYSELF.

So I present to you, dear reader, The Best Brown Butter and Black Sesame Banana Bread on the internet. And yes, that is her formal name.

And my reasoning behind this recipe is that banana bread is such an amazing blank canvas that is just ASKING for us to riff on it. And what better way to update banana bread than with nutty black sesame, rich brown butter and dark brown sugar? Like seriously, this is the loaf I think about in my sleep.

And don’t worry, you can easily make it vegan (we love Miyokos here!) as well as gluten free (we also love King Arthur’s gluten free blend!) because bread belongs to us all. Especially this bread.

What is the benefit of using brown butter?

Brown butter is an amazing ingredient, especially in baked goods like this banana bread. It adds a rich, deep, caramelized flavor that you can’t get with normal butter, and that’s because we are essentially “toasting” the milk solids in brown butter as we cook it.

What happens when we brown butter, is that the butter separates into water and milk solids. Butter is actually about 22% water and 78% milk solids (baking math, fun!) and the milk solids are what create the dark, rich tones of brown butter.

When you cook down butter the milk solids begin to toast, caramelize and develop in flavor. The darker the color the deeper the flavor notes. So we looooove our brown butter dark dark brown in this banana bread!

How to make the brown butter for this banana bread

Brown butter seems tricky, but it’s really just a stir-watch-and-wait process.

Begin by putting a pan or sauce pot on medium to medium-low heat, you don’t want it to be any higher than that.

Add the butter in a big clump and stir it with a wooden spoon until it melts. This is my favorite part. It’s so supremely satisfying.

Let the butter hang out until it starts slightly fizzing and foaming, I keep stirring it occasionally to prevent it from scorching, the whole process happens quite fast!

You’ll start to see light brown flecks, when that happens begin to stir constantly. When the flecks deepen to a nice golden brown, turn off the heat. Let the butter continue to darken in the pan just a bit, then it’s time to pour into a bowl and begin step #2!

I’ll have all steps listed out below so we don’t need to cover them up here.

The ingredients you will need for this black sesame banana bread

And what would a recipe be without ingredients yknow? I have everything listed out by cups and grams, but I always suggest using weight measurements if you can!

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter or vegan butter, 113 grams that will then cook down to 95 grams
• 3 large bananas, 400 grams
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar lightly packed, 99 grams
• 2 large eggs, flax egg will also work here
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 180 grams
• 1 & 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup black sesame seeds, 95 grams

A sample schedule for how to make this brown butter banana bread

This bread is all about timing. I wrote the instructions in the order I would suggest doing them. Here’s the step-by-step:

• Preheat the oven to 350F.
• Add the brown sugar to a large bowl.
• Add your butter to a skillet on medium heat. Stir until it is melted. Continue to stir as it begins to foam slightly. When you see light brown flecks begin to appear at the bottom of the butter, continue stirring and keep an eye on it. Things will happen fast at this point. When the flecks turn golden brown remove the butter from the heat and continue to stir.
• When the flecks are a deep brown, pour the butter into the bowl with the brown sugar. Immediately whisk to combine.
• Let this mixture cool for 5-10 minutes while you mash the bananas.
• Once it is cool, whisk in the eggs and vanilla first, then add the bananas. Stir well.
• Directly add in the flour, baking soda and salt. Stir with a spatula to combine.
• Split the batter into two bowls now. Use a small blender or food processor to blend the sesame seeds into a sand-like texture and add them to one half of the batter and mix.
• In a parchment-lined loaf pan, add about 1/4 of the banana batter to the bottom and spread it out thinly. Then add a layer of the black sesame batter and spread it out. Repeat this process until all the batter is used up.
• Insert a long skewer into the bread and swirl to create a marble patter (optional, but fun!)
• Bake at 350F for 50-60 minutes or until the loaf is a deep golden brown.
• Let cool, then slice and serve!

How to layer the black sesame into this banana bread

Layering the sesame is one of the trickier parts of this bread, because you want to make sure you get a nice, even swirl and some cute marbling.

I like to make sure that each layer completely spreads to the sides of the loaf pan, and then when everything is layered I swirl with a long skewer to create a marble effect.

Try not to over-swirl though, because that might cause the colors to mix too much, and then you won’t get much definition at all.

FAQ

Looking for other bread recipes?

I got you – maybe one day I’ll make a “normal” banana bread, but for now I have these perfect babies:

And that’s everything for this brown butter and black sesame banana bread!

If you make it, please tag me on Pinterest or Instagram so I can see! It’s my favorite thing to scroll through stories and see what you all are making.

And of course feel free to leave any questions, comments or reviews! This is the best place to reach me, and I’d love to hear from you <3