Olive Oil Banana Bread with Caramelized Walnuts
A salty-sweet take on the classic silky bread
Servings 8
Ingredients
- 1 cup walnuts
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1 pinch sea salt
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1 tbsp vanilla
- 4 ripe bananas
- 1 1/3 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F and line a loaf pan with parchment paper.
- In a medium stock pot, heat walnuts over medium heat until lightly toasted (3-5 minutes).
- Add sugar and turn up the heat to medium-high.
- Cook, constantly stirring until sugar beings to clump and caramelize. When you have an amber liquid coating the nuts, pour onto a silicon mat to cool and sprinkle with salt.
- In a stand mixer, whip eggs with sugar on high speed for 5 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Turn mixer down to low-medium and slowly drizzle in olive oil until emulsified.
- Add sour cream, vanilla, and ripe bananas and mix until combined.
- In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Break apart the cooled walnuts and add to the flour mixture.
- With a spatula, fold the flour mixture into the wet ingredients, 1/3 at a time, until incorporated.
- Bake for 55-65 minutes until cake is golden and springs back when touched.
Notes
- You can also use pistachios, hazelnuts, or almonds in the recipe instead of walnuts.
- It helps to mush the bananas first before adding to the cake mixture. You can mash them with the sour cream and vanilla, too, and add all of them in one step!
- Be careful of flour pockets when mixing in the dry ingredients. You don't want to over-mix the batter, but make sure to check the batter thoroughly.