• Preheat oven to 325℉. Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan with butter and line with parchment paper. Slice one not so ripe banana and add to the loaf pan. You will be flipping the loaf so this will become the top of the bread.

Banana Bread

• Heat a saucepan over medium heat. Add 9 tablespoons of butter to melt. Whisk the butter while it begins to bubble and foam. It will take about 5-6 minutes for the butter to brown. Once it has browned remove from heat and pour into a glass measuring cup. Because of evaporation you should have about a ½ cup butter. Make sure to scrape all of the browned bits out of the sauce pan into the cup! This is what gives all the amazing flavor. Set aside to cool.
• While the butter is cooling, mash the 3 ripe bananas in a large bowl with either a fork or a hand mixer. Once the butter is cooled add the browned butter and mix thoroughly into the mashed bananas. Mix in the eggs, both sugars, and vanilla extract.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
• Stir the flour mixture into the banana mixture just until no white streaks remain. Set aside while making the caramel.

Caramel

• In the same small sauce pan over medium heat, add a ¼ cup of unsalted butter to melt. Add the brown sugar and whisk to melt and dissolve the sugar into the butter. Stir in the maple syrup. Allow the mixture to come to a boil and time for one minute while whisking. After the minute, remove the caramel from the heat and stir in the vanilla and pinch of salt.
• Pour the caramel inside the loaf pan over the sliced banana. Sprinkle with about ¼ cup of walnuts in the blank areas without the banana slices.
• Stir the remaining walnuts into the banana bread batter and spread the batter into the pan being careful to not disturb the caramel sauce.
• Bake the loaf in the preheated oven for 65-70 minutes. Place a baking tray under the pan just incase any caramel bubbles out of the pan. If the loaf begins to get to brown, cover with a sheet of aluminum foil. The bread is down when a toothpick comes out mostly clean.
• Allow the loaf to cool for 10-12 minutes before inverting this onto a plate. Because the pan will still be very warm it is best to use a kitchen towel to protect your hands.
• You can slice this right away and eat warm but you will get cleaner slices if it cools. (I could not wait!)