Back when I used to have hours for time-intensive baking projects, I loved diving into the most complicated recipes I could find. The longer the ingredient list and the more steps involved, the better. These days, as a working parent of two, I don’t have quite as much time for breads, layered cakes, or cookies that require an entire afternoon. But I still love to bake, and there’s something especially comforting about having a homemade baked good sitting on the kitchen counter, ready to reach for on a busy or stressful day.
I’ve traded those more ambitious projects for simpler things like quick breads. They’re easy to prep, nearly impossible to resist when they’re fresh from the oven, and, best of all, freeze beautifully for future breakfasts and snacks. Come fall, pumpkin bread is, not surprisingly, one of my go-tos.
Because I’m one of those people who don’t like eating the same thing all the time, I like to change things up with add-ins such as chocolate chips or peanut butter. But last year around this time, as I was flipping through fellow Simply Recipes contributor Kat Lieu’s latest cookbook 108 Asian Cookies, I was inspired to try something a little less expected: white miso.
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Why White Miso Works in Pumpkin Bread
White miso might seem like an unusual ingredient for a pumpkin bread, but it makes surprisingly good sense—and tastes delicious, too. The fermented soybean paste has a mild, slightly sweet flavor and plenty of umami, giving the loaf a subtle savory depth. It’s similar to the way a little salt helps the flavors in a dessert stand out.
I prefer white miso (known as shiro miso in Japanese) because it’s milder and sweeter than darker varieties like red miso. You’ll find it refrigerated at most Asian grocery stores, and it keeps for a long time in the fridge, making it an easy ingredient for savory recipes, too.
How To Add Miso to Pumpkin Bread
You don’t need to make any major changes to your favorite pumpkin bread recipe. I simply add one to two tablespoons of white miso along with the wet ingredients. Whisk it into the melted butter or oil, sugar, eggs, pumpkin, and other liquid ingredients until it’s completely incorporated before adding the dry ingredients.
If your recipe already calls for salt, you can leave it in. The amount of miso isn’t enough to make the bread taste salty, but if you’re adapting a recipe that uses a particularly generous amount of salt, you may want to reduce it slightly.
The first time I added miso to pumpkin bread, I wasn’t sure I’d notice much of a difference. But after one bite, I understood why it worked. It didn’t turn my pumpkin bread into something completely different—it just made the familiar combination of pumpkin, brown sugar, and warm spices pop even more.
By the time fall rolls around, I know I’ll be making pumpkin bread more than once. Like years past, there’ll be loaves studded with chocolate chips or swirled with peanut butter and now, also imbued with a dollop or two of white miso.
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