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–+ servings

Ingredients

Yields: 1 loaf
  • 230 g overripe banana flesh - this should amount to 4-5 small bananas, or 2-3 big ones, plus one more to garnish
  • 100 g butter - softened at room temperature
  • 70 g shiro - sweet miso
  • 80 g caster sugar
  • 80 g light brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 200 g all-purpose flour
  • 12 g baking powder
  • 2 g cinnamon

Method

  • Peel all the bananas, and mash up all but one with a fork. That last one we’ll save as a garnish.
  • Heat your oven to 175°C, and ready a lined loaf tin for your banana bread batter.
  • In a mixer with the paddle attachment, mix the butter, sweet miso, caster sugar and brown sugar on medium speed until it turns light and fluffy. This should take 2-3 minutes. Then, add in the mashed bananas, eggs and vanilla extract and mix for 30 seconds. The batter might start to look a little chunky and split at this point; don’t fret, this is perfectly normal. Finally, add in the dry ingredients — flour, baking powder and cinnamon — and mix for another 20-30 seconds, until a smooth batter forms.
  • Pour the banana bread batter into the lined loaf tin. Then, take that extra banana you saved in step one, and slice it in half lengthwise. Place them on top of the batter, cut side up. (See the photos for reference.)
  • Bake the banana bread in the oven for 60-75 minutes, rotating it once 45 minutes into the baking process. To check for doneness, prick it in the middle with a skewer or cake tester; the cake is done when the skewer comes out clean. When done, let it cool in the tin for 30 minutes before digging in!

Notes

A note of caution — there are several types of miso out there. Shiro (or white) miso works best for this recipe, and for most desserts for that matter, because out of all the misos, it is the sweetest and has the mellowest level of funk. You could use yellow miso here too if you already have a tub of that in your fridge, but I suggest you steer clear away from the uber-funky red miso paste. But then again, maybe some of you *like* extreme funk. Plus, you know I’m all for kooky, adventurous cooking, so I won’t stop you. Just don’t blame me when your banana bread instead turns out to be a full-on miso bread with an afterthought of banana. (Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing..?)