Banana Cake With Chai Spice Streusel

     This past spring when my sisters were in town we had a few bananas that were in an embarrassing state of ripeness, so we did the only thing we could do: We had a banana bread bake-off.

     Jane made a standard banana bread; Lea and daughter Claudia made a banana/apple bread with a cream cheese glaze. Anne had reorganized my cooking magazines and newspaper recipe clippings, and while doing this she came across a recipe for a browned butter streusel cake, so we followed that recipe, but added two bananas (almost liquefied by then), and it was delicious. 

     We had gone on a field trip of sorts to a local international market. I've never seen so many different types of rice. The spice aisle itself was a revelation. Whole nutmeg, cardamom,  star anise, the smells were exotic.

     Star anise looks like dehydrated baby tarantulas.  I would never have thought to purchase it had it not been part of the recipe.

     The recipe called also for browned butter ghee plus the caramelized bits of milk solids, and this is an adventure all its own:

Browned Butter Ghee:

Melt 1 lb (4 sticks) unsalted butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly. After 10 minutes, reduce the heat to low. Continue stirring another 10 minutes. At this point, you will see the butter almost suddenly begin to foam up. Look closely, and when you see the milk solids start to brown, remove from heat. Strain the butter through a cheese cloth to remove the browned bits and save the now clarified butter or ghee in a glass jar (it can be stored at room temperature for months). Reserve the browned bits for the streusel. 

For the streusel part of the cake:

Mix together and set aside

1/2 cup flour

1 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 tsp. ground cardamom 

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon 

1/2 tsp. ground ginger

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp. ground cloves

1/4 tsp. ground star anise

1/4 tsp. kosher salt

1 tbsp. browned milk solids (from the ghee production)

1/2 cup ghee.

Cake:

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. kosher salt

2 eggs plus 1 egg yolk

3/4 cup plain yogurt

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup sugar

5 tbsp dark brown sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3/4 cup ghee

2 very ripe bananas

Preheat oven to 325. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper, or if you don't have any, just grease your pan well with butter.

Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients. Mix together wet and dry ingredients until just combined. Pour half the batter into your prepared pan. Cover with half the streusel. Pour in the rest of the batter, and top with the remaining streusel. Bake 60 minutes and check the center with a cake tester. It may need another 15 minutes more depending on your oven. Cool in the pan on a wire rack 5-10 minutes, and then remove the cake from the pan to continue cooling.

Look how happy it is! This cake is moist and delicious, and only needs a cup of coffee for a complete dessert...or breakfast....or midday snack!