Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

This browned butter chocolate chip banana bread gets lots of flavor from the browned butter in the batter. 

The secret ingredient for this bread is browned butter. Browned butter is pretty amazing. 

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip, Caramel, and Sea Salt Cookies

These browned butter chocolate chip, caramel, and sea salt cookies are not only gooey when they first come out of the oven, they stay gooey even after they have cooled. They're pretty magical.

"Browned butter?" you ask!

Instead of creaming the butter and sugar as you would for most chocolate chip cookie recipes, you actually boil the butter until it is golden brown. You have to watch very carefully when you do this, because the butter can quickly turn black... and you'll have to start over.

As you brown the butter, the water evaporates, and the wonderful buttery flavor gets even more concentrated.

The cookies are filled with chopped semi-sweet chocolate, chocolate chips, and caramel bits. Finally, they are sprinkled with flaked sea salt.

They are slightly under baked, producing an amazingly gooey center (P.S. for those of you who are squeamish about bite marks on food photos, I promise, this view is not of bite marks! No teeth were used to produce this photo).

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip, Caramel, and Sea Salt Cookies

Ingredients

14 T (200g) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch slices
1/2 C (100g) white sugar
3/4 C (150 g) packed dark brown sugar
1 1/4 tsp fine sea salt (table salt will do)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 C (255 g) all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 C (135 g) semisweet chocolate, chopped
3/4 C (135 g) semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 C (75 g) caramel bits
Flaked sea salt for sprinkling

Instructions

1. Place the butter into light colored frying or saute pan and cook, stirring constantly, over medium high heat. When the butter begins to boil, pay very close attention. When the butter starts to turn golden brown, after about 3 to 5 minutes, immediately remove it from the heat and pour it into a large bowl. 
2. Add the white sugar, brown sugar, fine sea salt, and vanilla. Whisk until the mixture cools somewhat.
3. Add the egg and egg yolk, and whisk for about 2 minutes, until the mixture begins to lighten in color. 
4. Fold in the flour and baking soda until just incorporated. Fold in the chocolate, chips, and caramel pieces. Do not over mix. 
5. Divide the dough into golf ball sized pieces, about 70 grams each. My dough yielded 14 cookies. Shape the dough pieces into balls, place them on a plate, and sprinkle them with sea salt. 
6. Cover the dough balls with plastic, and refrigerate over night. 
7. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F with a rack in the middle of the oven. 
8. Line two baking sheets with parchment and place the cookie balls about 2 inches apart on each sheet. 
9. Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, for 8 to 12 minutes (it took 12 minutes in my case). Do not over cook. 
10. Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, and then transfer to a cooling rack. 

This recipe is adapted from the amazing bread book Josey Baker Bread: Get Baking - Make Awesome Bread - Share the Loaves. Yes, a bread book! And a very good one. 

Brown-Butter-and-Vanilla-Bean Weekend Cake | Tuesdays with Dorie

This brown butter and vanilla bean weekend cake is so easy to make and really versatile. When it is first made, it can be eaten plain, as you would any cake. When it gets stale, it is excellent toasted and buttered.

Yes, I buttered a butter cake.

The crust has a wonderful crispy sugary texture, even though it is simply a plain cake.

The story behind this cake, and loaf cakes like it, as told by Dorie Greenspan, is that this is a gateaux voyage, or gateaux weekend (according to Dorie, the French do use the American term, "weekend"). It's a simple cake that the French wrap up and take with them on weekends away.

To make this cake, all you need is a couple of bowls, a loaf pan, a whisk, and a rubber spatula. No electric mixer needed.

Oh, and the browned butter! The butter in this cake is boiled until it turns to a deep amber color, adding such a wonderful caramelized flavor. You definitely need to keep a very close eye on the butter, because when it begins to brown, it can burn very quickly. I poured mine out into a heat proof bowl the minute it was the right color so it wouldn't continue to cook in the hot pan.

Suggested ways to eat this cake:

1. Plain
2. Toasted with butter
3. Topped with vanilla ice cream
4. Spread with jam
5. Toasted and spread with jam
6. Topped with chocolate sauce
7. Spread with Nutella
8. Toasted and dipped in coffee
9. Toasted and used as croutons in hot chocolate
10. Spread with whipped cream

I'm sure you guys have many more suggestions. 

This recipe is from Dorie Greenspan's stunning new book, Baking Chez Moi. The stories behind the recipes are such a fun read. I am a total fangirl. 

The recipe for this cake can be found > here <. 

To see how other bakers fared with this recipe, check out the Tuesdays with Dorie group's site.

Carrot and Cauliflower Puree with Browned Butter

This Carrot and Cauliflower Puree was the perfect side dish for Christmas dinner this year.

It was my turn to host the annual family Christmas Eve soiree. On the dinner menu? Ribeye roast beef, red wine dijon cream sauce, spinach gratin, goat cheese mashed potatoes (contributed by my cousin), and this carrot and cauliflower puree.