Banana Bread with Browned Butter Mascarpone Frosting

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This classic Banana Bread recipe would turn out just as moist and supple if it was baked in a traditional bread loaf pan. But come on, these little stacked sweeties look as spectacular as they taste. Baked to perfection, three mini-round Banana Breads are separated by layers of sweet Browned-Butter Mascarpone Frosting and topped with Walnuts. This recipe allows you to play with substitutions based on what’s in your pantry. You have the basic ingredients, the rest is all fun and games.

This recipe is featured on the Best Quick Breads(click)
and Brown Butter (click) Feeds on the feedfeed website.

I rushed home from work this Friday, excited that my mom was coming up to visit for the week. There was only 2 hours to prepare dinner and dessert before she arrived. I quickly whipped up the pizza dough for our dinner of Mediterranean Grilled Pizza. My hubs ran to the store for coffee grounds and Italian sweet cream. See, we know that there are three main consumables that my mom loves: pizza, coffee and dessert. Pizza, check. Coffee, check. Hmm, what should I do for dessert? (Yes, this is me talking to myself).

I threw open the cupboard and refrigerator doors, simultaneously taking inventory of all my at-home ingredients.

“I guess I could make banana bread, but that’s nothing special,” I mumbled.

Click, clack, clackety, click. I googled Cooking Light desserts with Banana.

Suddenly, I discovered a decadent recipe for banana bars (I didn’t make these) with Browned Butter-Pecan Frosting. I skipped to the freezer, home to my overly ripe bananas, and was shocked to find only two frozen plantains. “You can make this work”, I encouraged myself.

The Browned Butter Frosting called for cream cheese, which I did not have. “Mascarpone will do the trick.” “No pecans? Walnuts will do.”

So one pointless story later, here are my versions of Cooking Light’s Classic Banana Bread and Browned Butter Frosting.

Ingredients

Banana Bread

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar (I used Truvia)

1/4 cup butter, softened

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas or 1.5 plantains)

1/3 cup plain Greek yogurt (low-fat)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Add Ins: cinnamon, nutmeg, chocolate chips, walnuts, pecans

Browned Butter Mascarpone Frosting

1/4 cup butter

2 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup (3 ounces) mascarpone cheese or 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped and toasted

Preparation

Preheat oven 350 degrees
Beat all Banana Bread ingredients together with a mixer. If bananas are frozen, soften in microwave for 30 seconds.
Coat bread loaf pan or mini-round cake pans with cooking spray (you can use muffin tins too)
Bake in bread loaf pan for about 1 hour, three mini-cake rounds 40-45 minutes, muffin tin 30-35 minutes.
Check if bread is done with a toothpick. Insert into bread batter. It’s done when toothpick comes out clean.
Set banana bread aside to cool.
While bread bakes, make the frosting.
Melt 1/4 cup butter in small sauce pan, on medium heat, until it turns brown.
Combine browned butter, powdered sugar, mascarpone and vanilla in a bowl. Beat with mixer until smooth.
Spread frosting over cooled banana bread and sprinkle on walnuts. (Obviously I did not wait for it to cool. I was too excited.)