Gluten Free

Gluten-Free Browned Butter Banana Cookies

Browned butter and banana has become my favorite flavor combination. The browned butter enhances and compliments the banana flavor tremendously. Add a little cinnamon and nutmeg and you have a mouth-watering gluten-free cookie, crisp on the outside, chewy on the inside, with an amazing aroma!

The Inside Scoop

American butter is 18-19% water. When butter is browned, the water cooks out of the butter and the fat becomes more concentrated. This creates quite a challenge in finding the right balance between the fats, flours, liquids and bananas. I have included weights for most ingredients since this is the most accurate way of achieving the desired results. Volumetric measures should be considered approximations.

To brown butter: Do NOT use a non-stick or dark colored skillet to brown the butter. It is essential to be able to determine the color of the butter as it browns. Once the butter melts and the water evaporates, the butter will brown quickly and can burn easily if not removed from heat in time.

Before browning the butter, place a plastic container in a bowl filled with a couple inches of ice water. Be sure the inside of the plastic container remains dry. Once the butter browns to a golden color, it needs to be cooled immediately, otherwise it will continue to cook and burn.

As the butter browns, it will become somewhat foamy and browned milk particles will sink to the bottom. If you wish, you can remove the foam and some of the browned particles by pouring the browned butter through a small sieve and into the container. This method is also helpful if the butter has become slightly burned as it will remove most of the burnt milk particles.

When you are done, you will have a beautiful, deep golden brown butter with darker milk particles on the bottom. The darker milk particles are completely useable and very flavorable.

Let the browned butter cool completely and become firm, but not hard. Once the water is cooked out, browned butter will become much firmer than the original butter. To store, cover and refrigerate. Note: Butter can be browned several days in advance.

Once the browned butter has cooled to room temperature and become firm, measure out 200 grams of the browned butter. If there is extra browned butter, store in a sealable container and refrigerate. I typically brown a pound of butter at a time and store the extra for the next time I want it.

For this recipe, the bananas need to be pureed. I found that fork mashing the bananas left too many small chunks of banana- the liquid in these small chunks of banana made the cookies “wet” within a few hours. By pureeing the bananas, the bananas bake evenly and the cookies maintain their chewiness.

Combine My Gluten Free Flour Mix with the other dry ingredients in a large bowl; whisk together until all dry ingredients are evenly distributed throughout the gluten free flour. This helps to ensure an even rise.

Please note: My recipes are developed using My Gluten Free Flour Mix. Just as one cannot substitute whole wheat flour for cake flour, one should not expect to substitute My Gluten Free Flour Mix with other gluten-free flour mixes and get the same result.

Crack eggs into a small bowl before adding to the batter. That way, it is easy to remove any bits of eggshell or bloody eggs.

Since gluten free flours do not contain gluten, refrigeration time is essential to allow flours to absorb moisture and eliminate the gritty “gluten free” texture and taste. Refrigerate your prepared cookie dough overnight or longer.

Line your baking sheets with parchment paper: This increases the likelihood that cookies are uniformly done on the bottom. Parchment paper also makes it easier to remove the cookies from the cookie tray after baking and it makes clean-up a snap- just throw the paper away!

Avoid incorporating excess air into the cookie batter by gently folding or stirring the wet and dry ingredients together. Excess air makes for a more cake-like cookie.

Be sure to leave 3″ of space between cookies, as cookies will rise considerably.

Print Recipe

Gluten-Free Browned Butter Banana Cookies

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By Connie Teunis – Serves: Makes 2 dozen 1 1/2 ounce cookies.

Cooking Time: 12-14 minutes

A delicious banana cookie enhanced with the flavor of browned butter. Slightly crisp on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside, and GLUTEN FREE!

Ingredients

2 ½ Sticks (284 g.) Unsalted Butter, Browned; measure out 200 grams Browned Butter for the cookies

192 g./ 1 c. Brown Sugar

2 Large Eggs

1 t. Banana Extract (opt.)

300 g. Banana (Approximately 3 medium large Bananas), pureed

310 g./ 2 c. My Gluten-Free Flour Mix*

½ t. Xanthan Gum

½ t. Baking Soda

½ t. Salt

1/8 – ¼ t. Nutmeg

1 t. Cinnamon

Instructions

1

To Make the Browned Butter:

2

Fill a medium bowl with approximately 1 -2 inches of ice water. Place a plastic container in the middle of the ice water, making sure to keep the inside of the plastic container dry. Have a small sieve nearby, ready to use.

3

Place the butter in a skillet (do not use a non-stick pan or a pan with a dark lining) and place over low heat; cook until butter sticks are melted. Continue cooking, occasionally stirring gently, until butter develops a golden color and browned milk solids begin to settle on the bottom of the pan. This may take 15-20 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat and pour the browned butter through the sieve and into the plastic container sitting in the bowl of ice water. This will prevent the hot butter from continuing to cook and thus, burning. Let the butter cool until it has softly solidified and cooled to room temperature.

4

To Make the Cookies:

5

In a small bowl, whisk together the gluten-free flour, xanthan gum, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon; set aside.

6

In a small food processor, puree the bananas until smooth. Measure out 300 grams of banana; set aside.

7

Break the egg into a small bowl; whisk.

8

In a large bowl by hand, or in the bowl of a stand mixer on the slowest speed, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar; cream together until smooth. Add the egg; mix until completely incorporated.

9

Add the pureed bananas and banana extract, if using; mix until completely incorporated.

10

Combine the wet and dry ingredients by hand; stir gently to combine. Cover and refrigerate overnight or longer.

11

When Ready to Bake:

12

Line 2 large heavy baking sheets with parchment paper. If heavy baking sheets are not available, double the baking sheets. If only one baking sheet is available, position an oven rack in the top third of the oven.

13

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

14

For each cookie, measure out 1 ½ ounce of cookie dough (approximately 1 large rounded tablespoon). Place cookie dough onto the prepared cookie sheet, spacing cookies 3” apart.

15

Bake cookies 12-14 minutes until lightly browned and firm to the touch. Let cookie sheet cool on a cooling rack for 3 minutes. After 3 minutes, transfer the cookies from the baking sheet to the cooling rack.

16

Makes approximately 2 dozen 1 ½ ounce cookies.

17

Enjoy!