Black Pepper Balsamic Banana Bread
- 110 grams Brown Rice Flour (~3/4 cup)
- 60 grams Millet Flour (~1/3 cup)
- 60 grams White Rice Flour (~1/3 cup)
- 25 grams Tapioca Starch (~1/4 cup)
- 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
- 2 teaspoons Cinnamon
- 1 ½ teaspoons Freshly Ground Black Pepper
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- ⅔ cup Sugar
- ⅓ cup Oil (Rice Bran, Coconut, Safflower, Sunflower…)
- 4 Ugly Brown Bananas
- 2 Eggs
- 1 tablespoon Balsamic Vinegar
- ½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ⅓ cup Chopped Walnuts or Pecans
- 1 tablespoon Sugar mixed with 1 teaspoon Pepper (for topping)
Get Busy
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a 9×5 loaf pan with parchment paper.
- In a small bowl, measure and mix the dry ingredients (everything through the salt).
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the sugar and oil until well blended.
- Add the bananas and mash/whisk/puree the mess with a wooden spoon/whisk/electric hand mixer. It doesn’t have to be completely smooth, but you don’t want chunky banana pieces floating around.
- Add the eggs one at a time and stir to combine.
- Add the vinegar, vanilla, and nuts and mix well.
- Pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan and sprinkle the top the the additional sugar/pepper mixture (this makes a lovely crust).
- Bake the cake for one hour, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Let the cake cool in the pan for 5 minutes before removing it to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Kick ass.
I hope you made extra and are alright with a burglary.
I’m a huge fan of weird ingredients in the kitchen. The first time I tried curry in a zucchini bread recipe, I flipped out how delicious and unexpected it was. This banana bread seems like such an interesting character in comparison to the banana breads of our youth.
Also, that “on the risk of being disowned” comment about changing food tastes is such a familiar feeling.
I really do love the blend of sweet and savory here, it’s wonderful on a cheese/salumi plate for pre-dinner snacking (alone or in hoards).
This looks really amazing (as does pretty much EVERYTHING on your site – which can result in the wonderful ‘problem’ of not knowing where to start first!) but I have one slightly oddball question for you: is there anything that can be subbed out for the bananas? I know, I know. It’s Black Pepper Balsamic Banana Bread. Very strange to want to switch out the primary ingredient in something. I’m pretty comfortable anymore dealing with the changes needed in recipes since I was diagnosed with celiac, and I’m an old hand at maneuver around the nut allergy (for example – for this recipe I’m eying the container I have of some roasted black pepper spiced pepitas I made last week. Easy-peasy to swap for the walnuts). But of all my stupid allergy ‘issues’ the weird banana one is the one I must often fall over! The black pepper/balsamic idea in a sweet quick bread sounds so great… but I’m not sure what to use instead. Any ideas? Pumpkin? Roasted Pears? Help?
Yes! Indeed! I would absolutely try pumpkin (sub 2 cups for the bananas). In fact, now that you’ve mentioned it, I’m hankering to make another batch with pumpkin puree. And your pepitas are perfect (that was less obscene in my head). Thanks for writing, I love to chat with people on the site. Let me know how the recipe comes out with pumpkin, I can’t wait to try it myself.
Rock on.