Gluten-Free Brown Butter Banana Bread With a Crispy Sugar Top
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These brown spots are what legends are made of. This isn’t your average banana bread. It’s gluten-free brown butter banana bread with a secret weapon, milk powder, and a crackly, caramelized sugar crust that’s impossible to resist.
Soft inside, crisp on top, sweet and nutty. I still can’t believe how many people it has fooled. Nobody ever guesses it’s gluten-free.
Where It Started
This is my original recipe card, from long before I went gluten-free. Same butter, same eggs, same three bananas. Over the years I made it secretly gluten-free and beefed it up with brown butter, milk powder and that crackly sugar crust. Still my best banana bread.
Why It’s a Showstopper
- Brown butter: toasted milk solids bring a deep, nutty, almost caramel flavor.
- The secret ingredient, milk powder: it gives the butter more to brown and adds richness and tenderness.
- The melted sugar method: stirring the sugars into the hot butter makes a smoother, fudgier crumb.
- The sugar crust: sugaring the pan and the top gives every slice that crackly, caramelized edge.
- Double leavening: baking soda plus baking powder for a tall, fluffy loaf.
Tips
- Use the ugliest bananas you have. More brown spots means more sweetness and banana flavor.
- Let the butter-sugar syrup cool to lukewarm before the eggs go in, so they don’t scramble.
- Check that your flour blend has xanthan gum. If it doesn’t, add ¼ teaspoon.
- Mix the flour in just until the streaks disappear. Overmixing makes it dense.
Tag @unbelievablygf when you make it. I want to see that crispy top!
10
slices30
minutes1
hourIngredients
- For the bread
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 tablespoon milk powder
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup light brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 ripe, brown-spotted bananas, mashed (about 1 to 1¼ cups)
1½ cups gluten-free all-purpose flour (with xanthan gum; if yours has none, add ¼ teaspoon)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
- For the pan and crispy top
Nonstick spray or softened butter
About ¼ cup granulated sugar
Directions
- Brown the butter: melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring as it foams. Stir in the milk powder as the butter begins to melt. Keep cooking 4 to 6 minutes, until the solids turn light amber and it smells toasty and nutty. Watch closely so it doesn’t burn.
- Turn off the heat and immediately stir in the granulated and brown sugars until it looks like a thick syrup. Cool 10 to 15 minutes, until lukewarm, so it won’t scramble the eggs.
- Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Generously grease a 9×5-inch loaf pan. Add a couple of tablespoons of sugar, tilt and tap to coat the bottom and sides, and tap out the extra.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the gluten-free flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
- Move the butter-sugar syrup to a large bowl or stand mixer. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla. Mix in the mashed bananas. A few small lumps are fine.
- On low speed, add the flour mixture and mix just until no streaks remain. Don’t overmix.
- Pour the batter into the sugared pan and smooth the top. Sprinkle 1 to 2 tablespoons of sugar evenly over the top for the crackly crust.
- Bake 50 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. If the top browns too fast, tent with foil for the last 10 to 15 minutes.
- Cool in the pan 10 minutes, run a knife around the edges, then turn out and cool completely on a wire rack.
Notes
- Use a gluten-free flour blend with xanthan gum, or add ¼ teaspoon. The browner the bananas, the sweeter the bread. Lisa Belle Marsh | The Undercover Gluten-Free Baker
