Brown Butter Banana Chocolate Chip Cake

This recipe is adapted from Fine Cooking.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Once the butter is melted, cook it slowly, letting it bubble, until it smells nutty or like butterscotch and turns a deep golden hue, 5 to 15 minutes. If the butter splatters, reduce the heat to low. Remove the pan from the heat and pour the browned butter through a fine sieve into a medium bowl and discard the bits in the sieve. Let the butter cool until it’s very warm rather than boiling hot, 5 to 10 minutes. (I have made it both ways and left the bits in, and it tasted fine.)

Using a whisk, stir the sugar and eggs into the butter. (Since the butter is quite warm, you can use cold eggs for this.) Whisk until the mixture is smooth (the sugar may still be somewhat grainy), 30 to 60 seconds. Whisk in the mashed bananas, vanilla, and salt. Sift the 1-2/3 cups flour and baking soda directly onto the batter. Mix together.

Pour the chocolate chips in a small bowl with the remaining tablespoon of flour and mix until chips are coated in the flour. Add coated chips to the batter, and using a rubber spatula, fold just until the the chips are incorporated in the mixture. (If you don’t have mini chips, regular chips work too.)

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, spreading it evenly with the rubber spatula. Bake until a skewer inserted in the center comes out with only moist crumbs clinging to it, 42 to 45 minutes. Set the pan on a rack to cool for 15 minutes, then invert the cake onto the rack and remove the pan. Let cool until just warm and then serve immediately or wrap well in plastic and store at room temperature for up to five days.

Serve with whipped cream for an additional treat!