Banana Milk Bread + A Bananas Maple Sesame French Toast

the loaf of the month

Don’t worry, I wasn’t going to let May slip by without sharing a bready recipe with you. Instead of a bun I have a very fluffy and deeply delicious Banana Milk Bread as this month’s Loaf of the Month! I’ve made this loaf more times than I can remember in the last two months. I can make milk bread with my eyes closed and without a scale at this point and normally my adjunct loaves come together fairly effortlessly. Not that this banana milk bread was hard to make, but I found myself trying to make it more complex than it had to be. With each batch I wanted the loaf to be simpler, more banana forward. This became especially apparent when I started playing around with a banana and black sesame cream bun topped with brûléed bananas that was pretty to look at but a complete mess to eat and a pain to assemble. The hair salon I go to got to enjoy the results of that test but I’m in a new phase of my life where I just don’t have the stamina or mental fortitude to blow torch 50 banana slices for some buns.

Eventually we got here, to this tender and fluffy banana milk bread that will make your whole house smell like heaven (if you like the small of bananas). The recipe follows the basic principles of my Mother of All Milk Bread from Mooncakes and Milk Bread. One big change is that it does omit the tangzhong, swapping that out for the actual banana. The moisture of the banana actually helps keep the bread tender but it won’t stay quite as fresh as a classic milk bread. But that’s where a good french toast comes in. Before the bread starts to get stale (remember you can freeze slices so you never actually have stale bread), you have about 3 blissful days where you can enjoy banana milk bread toasted with some salted butter or assemble a classic peanut butter and banana toast. The latter has been my go-to pre-swim/pilates fuel in the mornings with some extra honey and flaky salt. But once the bread starts to feel past its prime, it’s time to make a Bananas Maple Tahini French Toast.

I scraped the labour intensive cream bun for a very easy, yet fancy feeling french toast recipe. You can still make this french toast with a classic milk bread, brioche, or challah but the fruity and spiced undertones of the banana milk bread really make this french toast shine. The custard soak is a straightforward mixture of eggs and milk, but it’s slightly sweetened with a little maple syrup (more comes later), and swirled with tahini and vanilla . The tahini makes the custard rich and nutty and helps curb the sometimes cloying sweetness of most french toasts.

Bananas + Tahini + Maple + Vanilla? Can’t go wrong!

Hope you all love this loaf as much as I do! Have a wonderful rest of your week and long weekend!

Banana Milk Bread

Makes 1 loaf