Gochujang Chocolate Chunk Banana Bread
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Use your overripe bananas to make this chocolate chunk banana bread with a kick — its star ingredient is the Korean chile paste gochujang, which melds with the bananas, brown sugar, vanilla, white miso, maple syrup, cinnamon and olive oil. Spicy-tangy gochujang gives this banana bread a warming heat that gently builds and plays off the other sweet, fermented flavors.
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low-medium heat until fully melted, about 3 minutes. Turn off the heat, and set aside to cool while you prepare the rest of the banana bread batter.
Cut the dark chocolate bar into shards and chunks, set aside in a small bowl and refrigerate.
In the bowl of a standing mixer, or in a medium mixing bowl, add the flour, sea salt, baking powder and cinnamon. Mix with a paddle attachment or whisk until combined.
In a separate mixing bowl, prepare the wet ingredients. Start with the overripe bananas, mashing them down with a fork until mostly paste-like with some chunks. Then add the vanilla extract, gochujang, miso, melted butter, light brown sugar, maple syrup, olive oil and oat milk.
In a separate small bowl mix together the baking soda and apple cider vinegar until it froths, then add this to the wet mixture and whisk everything together until well incorporated, making sure to mix in the gochujang and miso paste well (there should be no chunks of miso).
Next, add the wet mixture to the dry. Mix on low speed if using a mixer with the paddle attachment — or whisk in a mixing bowl — until it’s all evenly combined and you have a thick, slightly orange-tinged batter. Gently fold in the chocolate chunks until evenly distributed.
Take the remaining tablespoon of butter and use it to coat a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with a paper towel all over the bottom and sides. Line the pan with parchment paper: Use a piece of parchment paper a little narrower than the width of the loaf pan, and lay it across the bottom and up the sides of the pan, folding any extra over the edges (trim if necessary). This will help when you remove the loaf out later.
Bake until a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center of the banana bread comes out clean, 50 minutes to 1 hour. Let it fully cool and set before cutting into it, about 1 to 2 hours. Slice and serve.
