Banana Bread Donuts with Browned Butter Caramel Glaze

The week after the birthday and the leg was better and the cold held and the woodstove kept up its work and the small private weight of the seventy-third year settled into something I could carry without thinking about it most of the time. The thing about a milestone age is that the milestone is acute on the day and dull most of the days that follow, and the dull is what you live with, and the dull is fine. I am seventy-three. So was my father. So were many men. The number is not a verdict.

Made a chicken and dumpling Sunday — Helen's favorite, the chicken poached in broth with onion and carrot and celery and bay, the meat pulled and returned, the dumplings dropped by the spoonful and steamed for fifteen minutes under the lid. The dish came out the way it always comes out and I ate it at the table by the window with the dog at my feet and the cold afternoon light coming in across the snow. The chicken and dumplings is the dish that settles me when I need to be settled. It worked.

The Friday vets coffee — Tom's second meeting as the convener and the rhythm has begun to settle into the new arrangement. Phil came. Phil drank his coffee. Phil told another story (this one about a deer he had shot in 1973 with a rifle that had misfired twice before connecting). The room laughed. The transition from Phil-as-organizer to Tom-as-organizer is now visibly complete and there is no ongoing renegotiation of the arrangement, which is the way Vermont rooms reorganize themselves around new conveners — quickly, definitively, without commentary.

Bill called Sunday with the report on the Beef Wellington — it had worked, the pastry was crisp and the beef was medium-rare and the duxelles had not made the pastry soggy. He had photographed every stage and texted me the photos through the cooking, and he was, on the phone, slightly intoxicated with his own success in the way a cook should be after pulling off a difficult dish for the first time. I told him: that is the proper feeling. Have it for a few days and then move on to the next thing. He laughed. We talked for an hour. Bill at sixty-five is, in some ways, the best version of a cook I have known — eager, methodical, unafraid of difficulty, and self-aware enough to know when he has done well and to enjoy the doing-well without making a thing of it. He is the kind of correspondent the blog has earned me without my having to seek him out, and the friendship is one of the small late gifts of the writing life.

The chicken and dumplings had done its work by evening, and the house still held some warmth from the stove, and I found myself thinking about what to bring to Tom’s on Friday — something to set on the table without ceremony, the kind of thing that lands well in a room of men who have been coming to the same coffee for years. Banana bread donuts came to mind: baked, not fried, and finished with a browned butter caramel glaze that earns its keep without being showy. I made a batch that same Sunday, and they traveled well, and Phil had two.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 15 min | Total Time: 35 min | Servings: 12 donuts

Ingredients

3 ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 cup)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/2 cup whole milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
For the Browned Butter Caramel Glaze:
4 tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
2–3 tbsp heavy cream
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Instructions

Preheat and prepare. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease a standard 12-cavity donut pan thoroughly with butter or nonstick spray.
Mix dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt until evenly combined.
Mix wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the mashed bananas, eggs, melted butter, milk, and vanilla extract until smooth.
Combine. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir gently until just combined — do not overmix. A few small lumps are fine.
Fill the pan. Spoon or pipe the batter into the prepared donut cavities, filling each about 2/3 full.
Bake. Bake for 12–15 minutes, until the tops spring back when lightly pressed and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.
Brown the butter for the glaze. In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the 4 tablespoons of butter, swirling occasionally. Continue cooking until the butter turns a deep golden amber and smells nutty, about 3–4 minutes. Remove from heat immediately.
Finish the glaze. Whisk the powdered sugar, heavy cream, vanilla, and salt into the browned butter until smooth and pourable. Add cream a tablespoon at a time to reach a thick but dippable consistency.
Glaze the donuts. Dip the top of each cooled donut into the glaze, letting the excess drip back into the pan. Set on the rack and allow the glaze to set for 10 minutes before serving.

Nutrition (per serving)

Banana Bread Donuts with Browned Butter Caramel Glaze — Something Sweet for the Table After a Settling Sunday