Serves 8
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  1. Preheat the oven to 160°C fan/350°F/gas mark 4 and line a 22cm x 11cm x 6cm loaf tin with parchment paper.
  2. First, brown all the butter – for the banana bread and for the whipped miso brown butter. Place 200g butter in a large saucepan over a low heat and stir constantly until you see it bubble up vigorously with a thick, cappuccino-like foam, and light brown solids start to form on the bottom. At this point, take the pan off the heat, stirring for about 30 more seconds, then immediately transfer it to a bowl, making sure to scrape out all the solids from the bottom, as these carry so much flavour. Weigh 100g from what you have into another bowl and put the rest in the fridge for making the miso brown butter.
  3. To the bowl with the warm brown butter, add the miso paste and olive oil and whisk until combined. Add the vanilla bean paste, along with all the sugars and whisk again until combined. The mixture may still be warm, so set aside to cool while you prepare the dry ingredients.
  4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and cinnamon. Remove about 2 tablespoons and transfer to a small bowl. To this small bowl, add the chopped peanuts and dates and mix to coat in the flour; this prevents them from sinking
  5. Add the egg to the cooled wet mixture, whisking well until homogeneous. In a separate bowl, mash the bananas with a fork or potato masher, until as smooth as possible, then add. to the wet mixture and mix to combine.
  6. Using a spatula, fold the dry mixture into the wet mixture in three parts, until no flour pockets remain. Finally, fold in the dates and peanuts until well dispersed throughout. Transfer the batter to the lined tin, sprinkle with demerara sugar and bake for 55 minutes–1 hour, until a skewer comes out clean.
  7. While the bread is baking, finish the whipped butter. Mix the 50g softened butter with the miso paste until thoroughly combined. Add the reserved, chilled brown butter and whisk, then add the maple syrup and whisk again until smooth. Store in the fridge until ready to use.
  8. To serve, remove the banana bread from the tin and cool on a rack. Then slice it up and slather on the whipped butter.

Recipe and images courtesy of Crystelle Pereira, taken from her new book ‘Flavour Kitchen’, which was published by Kyle Books in May 2023. Photography by Vanessa Lewis.

Sweet things