Tahini, walnut & dark chocolate banana bread – a variation utilising honey, olive oil, spelt flour and tahini for a nutty, wholesome morning tea treat that doesn’t lack flavour! Jump to Recipe
Happy New Year!
I hope you all had holidays filled with the those three big Fs – friends, family and food. Over here it’s been a blur of lazy mornings (that ultimate treat of not waking to an alarm) blending into slow summer days. The kind where hours slip gently past until 5pm hits and all you’ve done is turn pages of a book, skin still sticky with residual salt from a beach cool-off, and even contemplating dinner feels a bit much. Lazy meals of bright summer corn, bursting cherry tomatoes and smoky grilled zucchini, tossed through with the garden’s abundance of basil. Olive oil, lemon, flaky sea salt, pepper. Fishing expeditions courtesy of my younger brothers have supplied fresh fillets of terikihi, snapper and speared kingfish – hours-old fish is a whole different ball game to the dull, days (week?) old supermarket stuff.
I tried my hand at wood-fired pizza, inspired by the pizza oven at the rental bach. A few different dough recipes – Jim Lahey, Jamie Oliver, Peter Reinhart. Still can’t pick a favourite. Toppings? Pesto, hot smoked salmon, capers, red onion, cherry tomatoes, basil. Fresh tomato pizza sauce, anchovies, chorizo, mozzarella, basil. And with the last few pizza bases, a finale of melty, gooey nutella calzone, dusted with icing sugar and laden with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream.
There were endless uses for stone fruit – apricots combined with nutty pistachio frangipane and buttery shortbread, nectarines folded into flaky scones, peaches collapsing and tender under the weight of an oat crumble topping. Cherries all alone, because I can’t walk past the bowl without grabbing a fistful (seriously, zero self control).
A fair bit of morning running to enable all this, but when you’ve got the beauty of the New Zealand coastline at your doorstep, it’s not difficult. Isolated beaches are dotted only with jellyfish and a few surfers, the roar of the waves continues uninterrupted by cars, and rocky headland tracks gift soaring views over the horizon – a just reward for climbing all those stairs.
More books than I’ve read the entire rest of the year combined – would recommend Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma (a vaguely frightening exposé on our food chain), Lilac Girls (think All the Light We Cannot See, but based on true events), Blood, Bones & Butter (Gabrielle Hamilton’s life journey traced through food), Force of Nature (slightly Girl on A Train-esque) and Orphan X (reminds me of Jack Reacher). I was given Salt Fat Acid Heat and am itching to get stuck into that, and am currently reading SweetBitter (so far enamoured).
So though I haven’t been short on time, I’ve been a bit absent from instagram and from this blog of late. But we’re back now, refreshed and refueled to hit 2018 running!
This tahini, walnut and dark chocolate banana bread wasn’t originally intended to be a blog post, but I got so many recipe requests after showing it off on instagram that I thought you all might like to try it too. Although I hate the word diet, am whole-heartedly against cutting out any foods (or food groups), and looove baking with butter and sugar (friends, not foes!), I have enjoyed experimenting with using more olive oil, honey and alternative grains in some of my baking – as much for the variants of flavour as for any nutritional benefit. The olive oil, tahini, honey and spelt flour here, combined with nutty walnuts, banana and a bit of dark chocolate (who could resist?!), make this a lovely morning tea banana loaf to have with your morning cuppa. Don’t worry, it doesn’t sacrifice even a little flavour or texture. I know I called it a bread, but let’s be real – it’s definitely cake.
It’s a very flexible recipe – feel free to change up the sweeteners and the flour depending on what you have available, or skip the dark chocolate if that’s not your thing. The tahini isn’t dominant at all – it simply adds a slight nutty, sesame backdrop. Enjoy!
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup tahini
- 1/4 cup liquid honey
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/3 cup mashed banana , very ripe (3-4 large) plus 1 less ripe whole banana to top
- 1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup spelt flour (or plain flour if you don’t have it)
- 3/4 cup almond meal (ground almonds)
- 125 g dark chocolate , roughly chopped
- 1/2 cup toasted walnuts , roughly chopped
- a less ripe banana and about a tablespoon of sesame seeds to top
-
Preheat oven to 180°C and line a loaf tin with baking paper.
-
Toast the walnuts on a baking tray in the oven for 5 minutes if using.
-
Whisk together olive oil, tahini, honey, dark brown sugar and eggs.
-
Stir in mashed banana.
-
Sift over the dry ingredients and fold to combine. Fold in the dark chocolate and/or walnuts.
-
Pour into tin and top with halved banana and sprinkled sesame seeds.
-
Bake 40-50 minutes until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out just clean (except if it’s just getting melted chocolate). Leave to cool in the tin.
mmm this looks like such a tasty loaf! plus, loving that addition of almond meal, since it adds such nice flavor (:
This sound delish! What is almond meal? Also can I substitute tahini with another nut butter? Help please!
Almond meal is just ground almonds! And I think you could absolutely sub tahini for another nut butter – I imagine almond butter would work well. If it was a particularly thick butter (as tahini is quite thin) I would whisk another tablespoon of olive oil in. Let me know how you go! 🙂
this looks super scrummy! while i’m drooling over the banana bread, my mind keeps going back to the description of the pizzas you’ve been having ha! glad to see you back xo
Hahah they were pretty bloody deluxe pizzas, so I don’t blame you!! Thanks Fatimah x
I am so jealous of NZ summer.
That is all. This looks amaaaazing.
xx
<3 <3
I love the combination of flavours, well done!
Thank you!
Your instagram stories have given me some serious homesickness for New Zealand I have to say! Your summer has looked just idyllic.
This banana bread is everything!!! I love that you have used tahini, I am pinning to remember for the next batch I make! Gorgeous recipe and photos as usual, can’t wait to see what you bring us this year Claudia!
I stumbled upon your blog and baked this banana bread almost straight away this morning, with just a few adjustments (I didn’t use almond flour and replaced spelt flour with whole wheat). It was absolutely delicious and looked as pretty as on your photos – or almost 😉 Thank you for a great recipe! Cheers from a fellow food blogger on the other side of the planet in Chicago (I love NZ though)! Del.
Ahhh this ended up in spam, so sorry! But so happy to hear you made it- think I”ll try it with whole wheat next time!! <3
Wow, this looks amazing. The split banana on top is just gorgeous. I’ll have to try it this weekend. I’ve actually NEVER had tahini, but maybe I will try to make my own from black sesame seeds. I’ll let you know how it goes! Happy to have discovered your blog!
I agree with you, while I try to eat healthy most of the time, baking is an exception! If anything I’ll reduce the butter and sugar and make up for it in other ways. No need to cut out entirely, otherwise I might as well just eat a salad 😉
Oh you’ve got to give tahini a go! I keep a jar in my fridge and use it ALL the time – in salad dressings, to make a yogurt sauce, in hummus, in baking… would definitely recommend giving it a chance. And so true re the butter and sugar – you’ve got to live a little, right?! Thanks Anita! xx
So many great recipes to try on your blog! I absolutely love the mix of newer ingredients for this loaf. Putting it on my list. Mmmmm
http://www.citruslove.com
Thanks so much Christiane, would love to know what you think of the loaf! x
I baked it yesterday for tea time: absolutely delicious!
Next time I’ll try to reduce chocolate to 110 g, as 125 g was quite a lot.
Glad you liked it! yes I am definitely a chocolate lover so tend to err on the side of more, but it is all personal preference!
This recipe looks so delicious? How many grams of ripe bananas do you use? I’ve baked banana breads several times and ended up with a raw center because I used too many ripe bananas.
Hi Tania! I’m not actually sure because I don’t usually weigh them – I use medium sized bananas though. Next time I bake it I’ll try to measure it for you! I would say that it does vary a little each time I make it but i’ve never found that I ended up with a raw centre. Apologies that I couldn’t be of more help!
Hi! I’m wondering if there’s a substitution for the eggs you could recommend to make this vegan? I’ve made the original recipe and loved it! Thanks 🙂
Hi Karen! That’s a tricky one – you could try a flax or chia egg (lots of recipes online for these as an egg substitute), but the eggs are quite an important part of keeping it together so I’m not completely sure how it would turn out – but would love to hear if you give it a go.
Hi.. This bread looks amazing and so nutritious would love to make for my child.. but she is allergic to nuts.. can I substitute almond meal with oats meal or plain flour?
Hi Kausar, you could definitely substitute with either of those – it is quite a flexible recipe. Would love to hear how it goes!
This recipe is delicious. I’ve made it already 3 times and we love it! Thank you for sharing such healthy and tasty recipes!
So happy to hear, thank you!!
I will be attempting this recipe tomorrow! Looks delicious and I have Tahini sitting in my fridge begging me to use it!
Thank you for the wonderful recipe! No one suspected I made it gluten-free in my family. I was placed a Low FODMAP diet this week and used Oat Flour in place of Spelt ( I didn’t have it). It was outstanding! I had zero symptoms of IBS after eating it too! I love this site! I applaud your medical adventure in Psychiatry. How you described looking at all areas of the person’s life is what people do not realize they do and how specialized they are. Truly compassionate field. Making the recipe again now!
Hi Ann, thank you so much for this – so great to hear that the banana bread went well and so happy you enjoy the recipes and writing. Hope you are doing well x