So, a couple of different anecdotes to add today. The first one is: in German, a colloquial way of saying “hoarding” is “hamstering” (as in “I am hamstering toilet paper”). Kind of makes sense, right? Hamsters filling their cheeks with reserves (although that is when the whole TP analogy falls apart, because that would be a little gross to have TP in the mouth). I’ve always thought it a cute and funny expression.
The other story is this (and trust me, I’ll get to a point here in a minute): a few weeks ago, a friend of mine had a chocolate squirrel fall out of her freezer (sort of like chocolate bunnies, one of the companies in Germany makes chocolate squirrels around this time of year — wow, hamsters and squirrels and bunnies, all in one post) so she decided to add the now-broken squirrel into banana bread. For some reason, this struck me as funny, so this morning, as I made this Browned Butter Bourbon Walnut Banana Bread, I decided that I was just going to call it Squirrel Bread.
So there you have it, I am hamstering Squirrel Bread.
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut to small-ish pieces
3 tablespoons bourbon
1 egg
1 cup very ripe mashed banana
1 cup chopped walnuts
Directions
Preheat your oven to 350F. Prepare two parchment or foil slings for two 8 x 4 inch loaf pans or one 9 x 5 inch pan. Spray generously with baking spray and dust with flour.
While the oven preheats, spread the chopped nuts on a baking sheet and toast in the oven until they smell nutty and fragrant, about 10 minutes.
Place butter pieces in a medium skillet. Melt the butter over medium heat, swirling it in the pan occasionally. The butter will foam and pop, so be careful. Continue to swirl the pan often. Remove pan from heat once the butter starts to brown and smells nutty. There will be small brown bits on the bottom. The butter should be an amber color. Pour butter into a small bowl and let cool for a few minutes.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the milk, melted butter, bourbon, egg, and mashed banana and stir well. Stir in the toasted nuts.
Divide the batter evenly between the two pans, or fill the larger pan to 3/4 full (you may have a little batter left; do not overfill) and bake for 40-45 minutes for the smaller pans or 55-65 minutes for the larger, or until a tester inserted in the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs clinging to it. Remove from oven and let cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes before turning the loaves out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
