Banana bread is a classic for a reason – it’s comforting, sweet, and ridiculously easy to make. But sometimes you want a loaf that goes a little bit above and beyond your classic recipe. That’s where this toasted sugar banana bread comes in. Inspired by burnt sugar cake, we caramelize the sugar with milk before it hits the bananas, giving the loaf a warm, golden flavor that is rich, deep, and slightly nutty.
Then there’s the toasted buttercream. Which honestly, is a buttercream designed to melt. Slice the banana bread when it’s all warm, add the frosting, and you’ll have a melty, perfectly sweet situation. And the reason it’s toasted? Toasted butter, of course!
Read on for tips on how to toast (not burn) your sugar, the recipe and any substitutions that may help.
Table of contents
What makes it a toasted sugar banana bread?
This is “toasted” banana bread because we’re taking a page from burnt sugar cake and caramelizing the sugar before it goes into the batter. The difference is that the sugar is toasted with milk so it can develop that deep, toasty flavor without seizing or turning into a hard candy when added to the bananas. It’s a quick, extra step that makes the whole loaf taste warmer, richer, and just a little more complex than classic banana bread.
Ingredients you’ll need for this banana bread
For the toasted sugar banana bread:
- 3 large (350g) very ripe bananas
- 1/2 cup (110g) granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons (30g) whole milk
- 1/2 cup (113g) salted butter
- 3/4 cup (165g) brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups (210g) all-purpose flour
- 2 & 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt, use half if using Morton’s
For the toasted buttercream:
- 2 1/2 tablespoons (35g) salted butter
- 1 large egg white
- 1/4 cup (55g) sugar
- 2 tablespoons (20g) powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
What makes it a “toasted” buttercream?
This is considered a “toasted” buttercream because we’re using brown butter instead of regular butter. Brown butter 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. The result is a Swiss meringue buttercream with warm, nutty complexity and a subtle toffee-like depth.
Ingredient substitutions
This recipe is really customizable! Here are some substitution suggestions:
- All-purpose flour: Can be swapped for King Arthur’s 1:1 Gluten-Free Baking Flour if needed.
- Butter: You can swap it for vegan butter – I recommend using Miyokos Creamery, especially for the toasted buttercream, as it’s the only one I’ve found that actually browns.
- Whole milk: Can be swapped for 2% milk or plant-based milks like oat, almond, or soy just make sure they’re unsweetened and unflavored.
How to toast sugar
In a small pan, add the 110 grams of sugar and 30 grams of whole milk. Put this over medium heat and stir, letting the sugars melt and begin to toast to a light golden, around 4-5 minutes.
Immediately pour this into the bananas and stir immediately. To avoid the sugar seizing up, be ready to do this immediately.
Why is this recipe in grams?
Grams is always my preference for baking, and I hope it will be yours, too. The only way to ensure complete accuracy is through measuring by weight, not volume. One cup of flour can weigh all the way from 120 grams to 160 grams, depending on how it was packed. This ends up causing some volatility and miss-matched results.
I want to ensure you get the best results with this recipe (and I want to keep this recipe fool-proof!) so I highly recommend getting a small affordable kitchen scale if you want to move forward with this particular recipe.
Storage Tips
How you store a baked good greatly impacts how it will taste over time. This banana bread will last up to a week, and here are my best tips on how to store it and reheat it:
- Allow the bread to cool then store in an airtight container in cool, dry place like a pantry or a cool part of your kitchen. This is not the best recipe to store near the stove! Temperature variance won’t affect the moisture, but it will affect your bread’s ability to keep for the full week.
- Reheating: For extra moisture, throw in a damp paper towel over your slice before reheating – it’s wild, but it works! Just microwave your slice for 15 seconds with a wet paper towel draped over it. I learned this from Emily Mariko and I’m never going back.
Watch the recipe here
The video may not fully represent the recipe. For best results, follow the instructions as written.
Looking for similar recipes?
Brown Butter Banana Bread
Banana Bread Cinnamon Rolls
Salted Banana Cookies
And that’s it for this toasted sugar 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.
You can also shop this video if you’re looking for the exact pieces I use – I’ve linked everything on my ShopMy! *some links may contain affiliate commissions
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
Equipment
- whisk
- 10-inch sauté pan
- probe thermometer or candy thermometer
Ingredients
For the toasted sugar banana bread:
- 3 large (350g) very ripe bananas
- 1/2 cup (110g) cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons (30g) whole milk
- 1/2 cup (113g) salted butter
- 3/4 cup (165g) cup brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups (210g) all-purpose flour
- 2 & 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt, use half if using Morton’s
For the toasted buttercream:
- 2 1/2 tablespoons (35g) salted butter
- 1 large egg white
- 1/4 cup (55g) granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons (20g) powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F.
- In a large bowl, mash three bananas.
- In a small sauté pan, add 113 grams of butter. Brown the butter by melting it then letting it foam and cook for 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally until flecks of brown form at the bottom of the pan
- Immediately pour the browned butter into the bananas and stir to combine.
- To the pan where the butter was (no need to clean out the pan), add 110 grams of sugar and 30 grams of whole milk. Mix them together until they are fully combined. Put this over medium heat. Without stirring, let the sugars melt and begin to toast to a pale golden (note: this will be less golden than you see in the video), around 4-5 minutes. It will start to look like bubbling sea foam, that means you're about halfway there. Resist the urge to stir until you see the edges are lightly golden. Then use a rubber spatula to stir and scrape down the sides. Immediately pour this into the bowl with the banana/brown butter mixture and stir quickly before the sugar seizes up to combine.
- Add in 165 grams of brown sugar and mix. Crack in 2 eggs and add a tablespoon of vanilla extract. Whisk until smooth and combined.
- Add in 210 grams of all-purpose flour, 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1 teaspoon of kosher salt. Mix into a batter until just combined.
- Pour this into a parchment-lined 9 by 5-inch loaf pan.
- Bake on the center rack of the oven for 45-50 minutes. This may seem a bit lower than most loaves, but the key to the perfect moisture is not over baking it. You can test it with a toothpick in the very center of the bread. If it’s golden and crisp on top and the toothpick comes out clean, it’s ready to be taken out of the oven.
- While the loaf is baking, make the toasted buttercream. Add 35 grams of butter to the same pan and toast it until golden. Move the brown butter to a bowl and set it in the fridge. The goal is to get it softened, but not hard.
- Add the egg white and 55 grams of granulated sugar to a heat-safe bowl. Using the double-boiler method, put this bowl over a pot that has a few inches of water in it. Bring this pot to a simmer and whisk the egg white constantly, until it reaches 115°F.
- Remove the egg white from the heat and use an electric hand mixer to whip it until you have soft peaks. Add 20 grams of powdered sugar and whip again.
- Add 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract and salt. Then, add the softened butter a small spoonful at a time, whipping constantly to get a fluffy, toasted buttercream. Set this in the fridge while the loaf finishes baking.
- When the loaf is out of the oven, remove then frosting from the fridge and giving it one more mix to fluff up. This makes only a small amount, but it’s enough for each piece of bread to get around 1 tablespoon.
- To serve, slice the bread into 12 pieces, give each piece a nice tablespoon swipe of frosting. Enjoy warm.
Comments
Hi Justine!
Are there any egg substitutes you would recommend?
Ohhh this is tricky! Flax egg *could* work, but you won’t get a similar rise or dome. Chia egg is sadly not suitable for this.
OH MY GOODNESS! I just made this, doubled the recipe (the main loaf part) and tripled the icing (because we love extra icing) – so so so good. Thank you for a change up in the way I make banana bread, I needed this in the time of my ripe banana stage 😝🤗 they hit all the flavour profiles you didn’t know you’d need from a loaf of banana bread! Yum! Will make again!
Omg thank you so much for making it so quickly and for your review – I’m so glad you loved it!!
Hi! This looks so yummy! In addition to swapping the dairy butter and milk for their non-dairy analogues, do you think I could veganize this by adding another banana in place of the eggs? If not, what would you use? Applesauce? Maybe silken tofu? Curious to hear your thoughts.
Hi Izzy, I’m by no means an expert, but another banana wouldn’t be suitable because this bread does need a little bit of egg for structure. Flax egg could work, but you will have a flatter loaf. Let me know if you try the tofu, I’m curious to see if that would work out!
This banana bread is delicious! I shared some with my mom and she said “best banana bread ever!” But do you have any tips for gluten free flour use? I use it often and for cookies it’s a perfect substitute, but for cakes/breads like this, they are always mushier/denser than they’re supposed to be, even with some extra cook time. It may just be the gluten free curse (and again, still delicious!!), but anything that can mitigate that?
Hey Alyson! I’m by no means an expert, but I’ve heard tapioca starch can help! My personal flavor preference is oat flour, but that makes everything pretty crumbly.
Hey, Justine! I was wondering if I can double this recipe and freeze one of the loaves? I have lots of ripe bananas and would love to use them for this beautiful bread!
Also love your channel and just YOU. God bless
Hi Sophia – absolutely! These freeze really well, I suggest pre-slicing them before freezing, but that’s up to you!
This came out so nice !!! The color and texture is fabulous.
I might have failed at toasting my sugar though because it started sticking and crystalizing on the sides of the pan before even turning brown. Any tricks on how I can ensure it gets that golden colour? Baking is not my forte so I might be missing something here.
(Also, Forgive my sin Justine. I appreciate vanilla but couldn’t resist adding some nutmeg and Chai Masala to the dry mix when I made it the second time. It smells divine! )
Hi Apoorva, I’m so sorry about this! You definitely did not fail (especially if the bread came out well!). I suggest adding the sugar and milk at the same time, then putting the pan on the heat. Stir very rarely (more motion makes crystallization) until it’s bubbling. It will only get light golden, but it will get there in time!
11/10. Wow amazing cake, will be making again. Fun change to the usual cake baking recipe with the added steps to add different flavours you wouldn’t usually expect. Thank you!!
I’m so so thrilled you liked it!
I made this 2 days ago, and it turned out pretty great! Toasting the sugar was a nightmare ( skim milk just wouldn’t cut it) but even with whole milk I’m having a hard time with it. The mixture bubbles up and crystallizes without browning. Any idea what I’m doing wrong? I get around this issue by melting the sugar alone and then adding in the milk. Any help would be appreciated!
Hi Ashely, I’m so sorry that was annoying for you. You definitely aren’t’ doing anything wrong. I suggest adding the sugar and milk at the same time, then putting the pan on the heat. Stir very rarely (more motion makes crystallization) until it’s bubbling. It will only get light golden, but it will get there in time!
please help! confused on how to melt the sugar with the milk- ours ended up white and crystallized. also in your video it didn’t look like you used any milk so just wondering how exactly to add it to the sugar?
Hi Jackie! Oof – I’m so sorry about this, I hope it was still delicious. The milk is to help any seizing of sugar, but it should only crystalize if the temperature on the pan isn’t high enough. Get the sugar and milk to a boil or simmer and that should help, I add both to the pan at the same time!
I made this yesterday….banana bread game changer! It was so good and simpler than I thought (I was intimidated by the toasted sugar technique but it wasn’t bad…I could move quicker next time with the mixing into the bananas). I will definitely be making this again, delicious.
So so glad you liked it! I also have a brown butter banana bread that’s just as delicious and skips the sugar part, if that’s more up your alley too 🙂
Delicious! Toasted sugar step was challenging for a novice baker like me but will be using this recipe again
I’m so glad you liked it! Thank you for your feedback and review!
My sugar seized but I stayed patient and it melted again then I added some water to thin it out so it wouldn’t seize in the banana. 5 stars because the flavour is incredible and even with blips on my part the recipe worked out great! Another amazing recipe to add to my favourites list!
I’m so glad it worked out and that you loved it! Thank you for taking the time to leave a review <3
l modified this recipe to be vegan (aside from the frosting) and it was genuinely life changing! I used Bob’s Red Mill egg replacer and I got a great texture and rise. I also used Earth Balance for the brown butter and added 1 tbsp of almond flour to convince it to brown. This is unlike no banana bread I’ve ever had before, it’s almost like bananas foster. So good!!!
I’m so glad you loved it and so happy to know the vegan swaps work well! Thanks so much for your feedback and taking the time to leave a review <3
I found you on YouTube. I’ve watched quite a number of banana bread recipes on, but yours really stands out. From the way it looks, the texture seems incredibly moist and richer than most others I’ve seen. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m excited to follow your recipe step-by-step because I trust your process will turn out amazing. I’ll definitely come back to share my results and observations. Thank you for sharing this.
Thank you so much! I hope you love it 🙂
This banana bread is delicious, but it was a nightmare to bake. The sugar toasting was an absolute disaster, I wish I would have gone to the comments and read Justine’s tips beforehand (little stirring! Only wait for a light golden!). I went by the video where the milk isn’t really visible at all, and it looks like Justine stirrs continuously (as I did, because milk). Maybe the recipe, or the companion text, can be edited to include these extra tips? And maybe add a picture that shows milk + sugar in the pan?
Oh yeah, I also sprinkled sugar into the loaf pan and on top of the loaf before baking, and that got all toasty and crunchy. Highly recommend!
Hi Justien, I’m so sorry this happened to you! My recipes do vary from videos (just due to retesting and other variables such as lighting) – I’ve added more notes to the recipe box that will hopefully clarify things in the future. I’m glad you ultimately enjoyed it, thank you for your feedback and taking the time to leave a review!
It was really delicious but was a lot sweeter even on its own compared to typical banana bread. I think I’d want to try your original bread sugar ratio and maintain the 3/4 cup total but toast some of it and see if it has similar flavor. I love the browned butter flavor which is a total game changer. Thank you for sharing!
I’m so glad you liked it! If you do try that out, please let me know how it turns out. Thank you for your feedback and taking the time to leave a review <3
This is the best banana bread recipe I’ve ever made! I skipped the frosting and added chocolate chips to the batter. I baked this in a glass pan and it took over an hour to fully bake, so just a tip for those without metal baking pans!
I’m so thrilled you love it! Chocolate chips were a great move. Thank you for taking the time to leave a review <3
I noticed that this recipe has more sugar than the other banana recipes. Can I reduce the amount of brown sugar if I don’t want this to be very sweet? Also can I add walnuts?
Hi Ana, I’d suggest using the classic Brown Butter Banana Bread if you want less sugar 🙂 It’s less sweet than this bread, but a very similar texture!
Hello Justine! I’m looking so forward to making this banana bread! I have all the ingredients but the butter I do have here is unsalted, do you know how much salt I could add in this case? Thank you 🙏🏼
Hi Elina, you can either leave the salt quantity as is (1 teaspoon) or taste the batter, and if you think it needs it, add an additional 1/4 teaspoon. I hope you love it! 🙂
This looks amazing! Quick question: if I have frozen bananas, can I use them in this recipe? Would I need to tweak anything as when they thaw they release liquid? Thanks in advance!
Hi Aurora, I haven’t personally tested it this way but bananas are very forgiving and you shouldn’t have an issue! Don’t drain any moisture, just make sure they are mashed well before proceeding 🙂
Ive made this recipe 2x so far and it probably is the best banana bread Ive ever had, I even shared it with my colleagues who confirmed it. The only issue is the sugar toasting part, my sugar is super bubbly and gets toasty while bubbling so I never get that pouring caramel like in your video. If I get it off heat it crystallises. Am I doing something wrong?
Not at all! The video was shot a few times for lighting consistency, in the instruction box it says pale gold, which is what you should go for!
This is like banana bread on hard mode. The sugar freezed on me when I added it to the bananas so I picked out all the chunks and finished the rest of the recipe. Still good though! I come here for a question though: could you first add the browned butter to the bananas and THEN the sugar mixture? Is part of the reason the sugar seizes so quickly is because of the change in temperature? Will the warmer mixture (because of the butter) keep that from happening?
Oh no! Your first comment is not what I intended at all and I’m so sorry you found it that way! This is a good note, and we will retest to confirm if it will work! If you are looking for an easier banana bread, the Brown Butter Banana Bread on my site is a huge crowd-pleaser, and super easy!
I feel like it must’ve just been me, but I found this recipe entirely too sweet, cloyingly so. I loved the technique of toasting the sugar and browning the butter. Stunningly moist texture, but I guess the combination of sweet, ripe bananas, granulated sugar, and brown sugar was too much. I could smell the banana, but couldn’t taste it because I couldn’t get past the sweetness.
Oh no! I’m so sorry you didn’t like it, my classic Brown Butter Banana Bread is probably a better fit for you, and it uses less sugar! Hopefully we will win you over with that one!
When I was whisking egg white with one hand and holding my cooking thermometer with the other I said to myself, this better be worth it! And, it wasn’t! Super, overly sweet. A bit dry. And a very cumbersome recipe.
I am so sorry this recipe didn’t work out for you! It’s absolutely never my intention to waste someone’s time or hard earned money on ingredients for a recipe they don’t like, so it breaks my heart to hear it didn’t work for you. Hopefully I can earn your trust back on another one (I have a Brown Butter Banana Bread that is fool-proof! Or a Carrot Cake Under Caramel that people are raving over!).
OMG so good!! This has dethroned my beloved go-to banana bread recipe. I also have a newfound obsession with toasted buttercream. I was nervy about the sugar, but it actually turned pretty decent and will be easy to perfect after a few tries.
Ahh this is music to my ears! I’m so glad you loved it. Thank you for taking the time to leave a review <3
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