Oh glorious banana bread! How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I’ve certainly baked my share of banana breads over the years and I’ve posted several very good recipes here on Blue Cayenne. Just type “banana bread” into the search box on this page and take a culinary journey through various approaches to the beloved dessert.
This recipe for Miso Pecan Banana Bread takes banana bread in a whole new (surprising and wonderful) direction. It incorporates white miso paste into the batter.
No. I’m not kidding.
It turns out that miso is a great addition to banana bread. The miso enhances the flavor of the bread giving it a carameley (is that a word?) flavor and texture. (Miso is a fermented soybean product available in the refrigerated case in most supermarkets. You can use it in all sorts of Asian marinades and it gives a delicious umami to soups and broths. It won’t go to waste. If you want to become a miso expert, here is a link to Japan’s Miso Board:Japan Miso Promotion Board. )
This is a recipe from The New York Times. You can find the original recipe here. The recipe’s author, Bryan Washington, also wrote a lovely feature piece about banana bread in the New York Times Magazine here. If you have a moment, you would, I think, enjoy reading his essay. It is a very nice piece of food writing weaving a personal experience with an ode to banana bread.
Here is the recipe for this delicious bread as I prepared it in my kitchen.
Miso Pecan Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 1/2 t. vegetable oil
- 1 C. pecans
- 1 t. fine sea salt
- 2 C. all-purpose flour
- 1 t. ground cinnamon
- 1/2 t. ground nutmeg
- 1/2 t. baking soda
- 1/2 t. baking powder
- 1/2 C. unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 1 C. packed brown sugar (I used light)
- 2 eggs (lightly beaten, room temperature)
- 3 T. milk
- 2 T. white miso
- 1 T. honey
- 1 t. vanilla extract
- 4 very ripe bananas (mashed)
- Powdered sugar for dusting (optional)
Directions
- Step 1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Step 2 Butter a 9 or 10 inch loaf pan and line it with parchment paper.
- Step 3 Roast pecans (tossed with oil and salt) on a parchment-lined sheet pan for about 10 minutes. Cool. Chop.
- Step 4 Whisk flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and baking powder together in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Step 5 In the bowl of your stand mixer, beat butter and sugar together until creamy. This will take 4 or 5 minutes. Add eggs, milk, miso, honey and vanilla extract. Beat until combined. Gradually, add the dry ingredients until the batter is just combined.
- Step 6 Fold the mashed bananas into the batter using a spatula and mix in one half of the pecans.
- Step 7 Spoon mixture into your prepared loaf pan. Smooth the top of the batter. Sprinkle the remaining chopped pecans over the batter.
- Step 8 Bake in preheated oven for about 80 minutes until a wooden skewer inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean. This is a moist loaf. If the top of your loaf begins to brown too much, tent the loaf during the later stages of the bake.
- Step 9 Remove the loaf from the oven and let it sit in the baking pan for about ten minutes. After ten minutes, remove the loaf from the pan and continue to cool it on a rack.
- Step 10 This is delicious as is or you can dust it with powdered sugar.
