ANNIKA MARGAUX

The Piece

01 / 02

Slices of mochi banana bread on a marble counter in warm sunlight

Recipes

Mochi Banana Bread

The Lincoln of baked goods

Banana bread sits on my Mt. Rushmore of baked goods. Unassuming and almost never bad. It's Abe Lincoln materialized into bread form: simple ingredients, no fuss, somehow able to turn the seemingly ordinary into the thing you still remember years later.

I've ordered it everywhere it appears on a menu. At some point the research had to be tested to what I consider to be perfection. This is the version I landed on: mochi for the chew (it's a field trip in the mouth) and brown butter for a caramel depth. It's sweet but not too sweet.

I cannot keep it in the house for long. The hand finds its way to the loaf at every hour. You've been warned.

Mochi Banana Bread

Ingredients

  • 180g Mochiko glutinous rice flour (order this on Amazon or buy from your local Asian grocer)
  • 120g all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • 226g (2 sticks) unsalted butter
  • 110g brown sugar, packed
  • 2 large eggs
  • 120g sour cream
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 very ripe bananas (the blacker the better — you should honestly be a little grossed out by them to know that they are ready. Feel free to add a third if you want that banana flavor to run deeper; my test kitchen was torn on which version they preferred. Nothing else in the recipe changes.)

Method

  1. 1.Brown the butter in a light-colored pan over medium heat, stirring it frequently. You need to watch for the moment the trifecta occurs — the foam dies down, the color turns deep brown at the bottom and it smells of popcorn. Pull it off immediately and pour into a large bowl. Cool for 10 minutes.
  2. 2.Heat oven to 350°F. Line a 9x5 loaf pan with parchment paper.
  3. 3.Whisk together both flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl until fully combined.
  4. 4.Mash both bananas to a clump-free degree and mix into the cooled brown butter. Add the brown sugar, eggs, sour cream, and vanilla. Whisk until smooth.
  5. 5.Sift the dry ingredients over the wet. Fold with a spatula until just combined — the moment the flour disappears, stop. Mochiko gets gummy if you over mix it.
  6. 6.Pour into the pan and smooth the top.
  7. 7.Bake for 50–60 minutes depending on your oven, rotating the pan halfway through.
  8. 8.Cool in the pan for 30 minutes, then lift out onto a rack. Do not slice until fully cool — mochi needs to rest or the middle will read a bit gooey, like it's not fully set.
  9. 9.Bonus: the next day, pan-fry a slice in butter until the surface goes crisp.

Enjoy, and as Lincoln said himself —

whatever you are, be a good one.