Turn Banana Bread Into A Treat You'll Want To Make Every Week With This Overlooked Addition

If you get a hankering for banana bread, there are countless different versions and recipes to choose from. Not only can you mix up the mix-ins (as in, chocolate chips, crunchy nuts, dried or fresh fruits), but you can ice your banana bread, swirl in things like cream cheese and peanut butter, or top the loaves with lengthwise slices of banana, which get browned and caramelized in the oven. But, if you haven't tried adding butterscotch chips to your banana bread yet, you're seriously missing out on sweet, buttery goodness.

Butterscotch chips in banana bread give major banoffee pie vibes, combining the flavor of toffee with banana. The rich, golden color of the chips doesn't stand out sharply against the color of the baked bread, so the flavor of butterscotch almost surprises you with each bite you take. One could argue that you'd get a similar flavor if you added a ribbon of caramel throughout the bread or drizzled it on top. But there is a slight flavor difference between caramel and butterscotch. Caramel is made with white granulated sugar, while butterscotch is made by combining butter with brown sugar, so you get a little bit of a deeper, molasses flavor using butterscotch chips. Banana bread basically becomes cake with this sweet addition, but you'll still want to have a fresh loaf on your counter every week.

Adding butterscotch chips to your banana bread is just the tip of the iceberg in creating a truly memorable loaf of goodness. You could still add walnuts or pecans, or a Nutella or pistachio spread swirl to the middle. Or how about making a banana bread inspired by Bananas Foster, the famed, New Orleans-born dessert that is just as famous for its pyrotechnics as its flavor? To mimic the dessert, take your favorite banana bread recipe but, instead of using oil or melted butter, use browned butter, which will give the loaf a super tender crumb and amazing nutty flavor. Add cinnamon, plus those butterscotch chips, to the batter.

Bake the loaf with some slices of banana on top and, when it comes out of the oven, drizzle the loaf generously with a glaze that's been made with powdered sugar and rum. You could even serve slices of this treat with scoops of vanilla ice cream for the full effect of the famed dessert.

If you don't manage to polish off the entirety of your butterscotch banana loaf, you can turn leftovers into trifles (use butterscotch pudding, of course), make some French toast, or build a yogurt parfait with vanilla yogurt and banana chips.