How about a banana bread that is moist on the inside, with a crunchy bite around the edges? While banana bread has been around for decades, the dish is now a global mainstay. Morning with coffee, noon as a quick bite for lunch, or after dinner shared with a scoop of ice cream—it doesn’t really matter what time of day you indulge. My personal preference is a warm slice with a dab of ghee, or a schmear of peanut butter; or let’s face it, just by itself is perfectly fine.
In this recipe, the crunch of pecans complements the bread’s softness, while miso (which we always have on hand) adds complexity alongside the banana’s sweetness. Be sure to utilize the ripest bananas you can find because it really will make a difference. This banana bread can hold for several days on the counter or in the fridge—if you have any left.
“Banana-bread recipes over the decades have in common bananas, sweetener, a chemical leavener, some fat and flour. But beyond that they can differ wildly.”
PJ Hamel
Banana bread is extremely flexible: If this recipe doesn’t work for you, just change it. Add a little more miso. Maybe lighten up on the sugar. Or toss in another half cup of pecans until you’ve adjusted it to suit your own preferences. I followed the directions without any alterations (other than what I did with the toasted pecans), and loved the results!
“Banana bread is both striking and unremarkable, simple and staggering, found on the counters of coffee shops and apartment bar tops and tiny cafes globally. A corner piece can shift your entire day. Or maybe your choice is a slice from the middle, full of flavor without the baggage of a crust. Or perhaps your ideal banana bread is whichever iteration is available — YouTube’s code sags under the weight of banana-bread recipes, and they’re each as delicious as the impulses behind them. It’s a dish as perfect as it is malleable.” — Bryan Washington
For the topping, you can add all of the chopped pecans to the batter, and place 8 or 9 whole roasted pecans to the top once in the loaf pan; or do half and half as instructed below. The indicated baking time of 60 to 80 minutes didn’t pan out for us. It took 1 hour and 35 minutes in the oven before the thin metal skewer stuck into the center came out clean.
Miso Pecan Banana Bread
Ingredients
- ½ tsp. vegetable oil, plus more for pan
- 1 cup pecans
- 1 tsp. fine sea or table salt
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp. ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp. baking soda
- ½ tsp. baking powder
- ½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 3 Tbsp. milk
- 2 Tbsp. white miso
- 1 Tbsp. honey
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 4 very ripe bananas, mashed (1¾ cups)
Directions
- Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil a 9- or 10-inch loaf tin, then line the base with parchment paper. Also, grease and flour a loaf pan.
- Toss pecans on a parchment-lined baking sheet with salt and oil. Bake until fragrant, 7 to 10 minutes. When cool, chop to your desired consistency.
- While the pecans cool, whisk together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and baking powder in a medium bowl.
- In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar using an electric mixer until creamy, 3 to 4 minutes. Beat in eggs, milk, miso, honey and vanilla extract until well-combined. Gradually beat in dry ingredients until just combined.
- Using a spatula, stir bananas into the batter to combine evenly. Add half of the pecans (and any salt on the pan) to the batter and mix to combine evenly throughout. Add batter to the prepared loaf pan, smoothing when complete. Sprinkle the remaining pecans evenly on top.
- Bake until a wooden skewer inserted in several areas around the center comes out clean, 1 hour to 1 hour 20 minutes (ours took 1 hour 35 minutes). Tent with foil if it starts to darken too much on top before the middle is baked through.
- Let bread sit in tin for 10 minutes before removing and setting on a rack to cool for 60 minutes. Serve with coffee, ice cream or entirely by itself.
Adapted from a recipe by Bryan Washington for NYTimes Cooking
Accounting for Taste 
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