FUNKY MONKEY BANANA BREAD
banana x chocolate x walnut x miso <3
SWEET TEETH
Ever since I first posted my Funky Monkey Cookie recipe a few years ago, it was only a matter of time before I took the same beloved elements—rich dark chocolate, crisp toasty walnuts, and savory shiro miso—and snuck them into a banana bread, so here we are!
This baby ended up taking far more tests than I thought it would. After making it so many times, I managed to go through every ripe banana I had sitting on the counter, pluuuuuus my entire emergency stash that I keep in the freezer. That’s dozens of bananas! What I will say is after the near countless loafs and taste tests I’m still not sick of it, in fact I’m craving a slice now, so I guess that’s saying something.
Anyway, by the time I was finally ready to photograph and film it to share with all of you, I looked around and all I had were stiff green bananas, nooooooot what you want for a perfectly moist and sweet banana bread! After scouring my neighborhood bodegas to get my hands on even one banana that was remotely close to ripe, I had just about given up, and resigned myself to the fact that I’d have to wait a bit longer to share this with you.
Buuuuuut then on my walk home… I remembered a video I saw on Tiktok a few months ago from @tonytastes that linked to an article about a trick to ripen bananas in 30-minutes by baking legend, icon, wizard, Stella Parks. Old me was really looking out for new me because I did in fact bookmark the article in case of emergency. So I broke glass, and refreshed myself on the technique.
Basically, Parks found that amylase, the enzyme that turns starch into liquid sugar as bananas ripen, naturally occurs in egg yolks, so if you take the yolks from your banana bread recipe, and mash them into your unripe bananas, after about a half an hour, the yolks will have broken down the starch into sugar, peeeeerfect for baking.
Of course, I had to try it, and it worked amazingly! To a point where I could not tell the difference between two slices of the bread, one baked using naturally ripe bananas, and the other using this technique! How damn cool!
Anyway so now thanks to science, I bring you this perfect banana bread recipe. Shoutout science! I hope you enjoy!
THE RECIPE
FUNKY MONKEY BANANA BREAD
makes a one pound (8.5 x 4.5 inch) loaf
Ingredients:
3/4 cup (75g) walnut halves or pieces
2 cups (256g) all-purpose flour
1 tsp (4g) baking soda
1/2 tsp (2g) Diamond Crystal kosher salt*
3 extremely ripe** medium (~345g) bananas
1/2 cup (115g) buttermilk
8 tbsp (1 stick/113g) unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup (96g) shiro (white) miso
1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
1/3 cup (66g) brown sugar
1 large (50g) egg
1 tsp (4g) pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup (131g) mini semi-sweet chocolate chips***
Directions:
Toast your walnuts: Heat your oven to 350°. Dump your walnuts onto a small baking sheet and spread into a single layer. Once the oven is at temperature, let them toast for 8-10 minutes or until they smell deeply roasted and have darkened in color. Set aside to cool when done. Once fully cooled, roughly chop.
Prep your pan: Grease a one-pound (8.5 x 4.5 inch) loaf pan with neutral oil before lining it with parchment, leaving a bit of overhang on the long side to easily lift out later.
Whisk together your dry ingredients: In a medium sized bowl, whisk together your flour, baking soda and salt, set aside.
Whisk together your wet ingredients: In a medium sized bowl, mash your bananas up with a fork. Pour in your buttermilk and whisk until homogenous.
Make your batter: In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl where you will use a hand mixer, beat your butter, miso and sugars together on medium-high until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Turn off the mixer, scrape down the sides of the bowl, add in your egg and vanilla, and beat on medium-high for an additional minute. Add in your wet ingredients and beat until combined, an additional minute. Gently fold in your dry ingredient mixture, until no large pockets of flour remain. Fold in your chocolate chips, and chopped walnuts to evenly distribute.
Bake: Add your batter to your prepared pan, and bake on your ovens middle rack for 75-80 minutes, or until the top is deeply browned and crisp, and a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in a pan, before lifting out, slicing and enjoying!
Leftovers?: Store in an airtight container in your refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes:
*If you’re using any other type or brand of salt (i.e. Morton, or sea salt), I suggest scaling back by half.
**Bananas vary greatly in size so don’t stray too far from the weight, though banana bread is more forgiving than other things.
***I prefer mini to get a better distribution, but if you want larger bites of chocolate you can do regular sized
Okkkk Men in STEM