Here’s a healthy, delicious recipe for Banana Bread with a toasty Sesame Seed Crust. Infused with ginger, it’s moist and flavorful. Vegan-adaptable, and can be made with sourdough starter. Video.
What I love about this Banana Bread Recipe!
Call me biased, but this is one of the best recipes for Banana Bread I’ve had! What makes this recipe unique is the sesame seed crust, giving the banana bread a delicious texture and toasty flavor. It’s infused with a bit of ginger too!
It’s also vegan- adaptable, using flax eggs. And lastly, you can use your sourdough discard or sourdough starter if you like! So many fun options! And just imagine how good you will feel when you pull this beauty out of the oven. You can thank Tonia for this recipe!
Watch how to make Banana Bread (Video)
Banana Bread Instructions
It starts with the toasty sesame seed crust!
To make the crust, oil a loaf and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
In a large bowl, mash the ripe banana with a potato masher. You’ll need 1 ¾ cups ( or see notes for using starter).
In the same bowl, whisk the mashed banana with the oil, maple syrup, eggs (or flax eggs) and vanilla. Stir in the spices and salt.
Whisk in the baking soda, and then the flour. Fold in walnuts if you like. You’ll have a thick batter.
I like toasted pecans or walnuts– but do as you please. I know how strongly some of you feel that nuts have no business being in banana bread. 🙂
Pour into the loaf pan.
To create a pretty top, split a banana (less ripe is better here) and sprinkle with brown sugar or coconut sugar. Cut through the peel, then remove the peel.
Bake in a 350F oven for 50-55 minutes, until puffed and golden.
Remove the Banana Bread from the pan, and behold the lovely crust! Beautiful!
Maple Tahihi Sauce
So, the icing on the cake, sp to speak is this Maple Tahini Sauce! It is seriously heavenly- so please don’t skip this!
How to serve Banana Bread
Slice up the banana bread, toast it in a toaster oven til the edges are crispy, then drizzle on the Maple Tahini sauce. The Maple Tahini sauce is a revelation. I literally could drink this.
Banana Bread Storage
Banana bread will keep up to 4-5 days on the counter, lightly covered, or up to a week in the refrigerator, If you live in a humid climate, refrigerate, to prevent mold growth. Freeze in slices for up to 3 months, and reheat in your toaster oven.
Enjoy the Banana Bread! Please tell us what you think and any of your modifications below.
Happy Baking!
More baked things
More recipes you might enjoy!
- Finnish Cardamom Bread
- Sourdough Pancakes
- Meyer Lemon Loaf Cake with Pistachios
- Maple Pecan Scones
- Sourdough Scones with Lemony Glaze
- Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins with Dried Cherries
Banana Bread with Sesame Seed Crust
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 55
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 8 1x
- Category: vegan, bread, baked, quick bread
- Method: baked
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Here’s a healthy, delicious recipe for vegan Banana Bread with a toasty Sesame Seed Crust. Infused with ginger, it’s moist and flavorful. Vegan-adaptable and can be made with sourdough starter.
Ingredients
Loaf Pan Prep: (optional, or sub parchment)
- 1 teaspoon olive oil or use spray oil
- 3–4 tablespoons sesame seeds
Banana Bread:
- 1 3/4 cups (4 bananas) ripe bananas (see notes)
- 1/3 cup olive oil, coconut, grapeseed oil or other )
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 2 eggs (or use flax eggs, see notes)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 cup brown sugar or coconut sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger (or use freshly grated ginger, 1 tablespoon)
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon allspice
- 2 cups (250 grams) flour, all-purpose
Optional tasty additions: 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (or other nuts), 1 banana (for the top, not too ripe) and brown sugar for sprinkling, 1/2 cup chocolate chips.
Tahini Maple Spread (optional)
- 2 tablespoons Tahini Paste
- 2 tablespoons Coconut Oil, softened but not melted or liquid
- 1 tablespoon Maple Syrup
- pinch of sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F
- Prep Loaf Pan: Oil the sides and bottom of a 9 x 5 loaf pan with a teaspoon of oil. Sprinkle sesame seeds in on top of the oil, and shake pan around so they are coating the bottom and sides fairly evenly. Set pan aside.
- In a large bowl mash the bananas. Add oil, maple syrup, eggs and vanilla and whisk.
- Stir in the salt, baking soda, brown sugar, ginger, cinnamon, allspice until well blended. Whisk in the flour. Fold in nuts if you like. This will be quite thick.
- Pour into the prepared pan ( see notes for adding whole banana slices to the top) and place on a middle rack in a preheated oven.
- Bake on the middle rack at 350F for 50-55 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in pan for about 20 minutes. Carefully turn out onto a cooling rack.
- Toast slices of day-old banana bread and lavishly spread with Tahini Maple Spread (optional, but heavenly)
Tahini Maple Spread:
- Mix all ingredients together in small bowl until smooth and creamy.
Notes
STARTER: Feel free to use ¾ cup sourdough starter, and reduce the banana by ¾ cup.
Flax Eggs: Mix 2 tablespoons ground flax seed with 6 tablespoons water, and let sit 5 minutes. This makes 2 flax eggs. Use in place of the eggs in this recipe.
TOP: To add sliced banana to the top, cut an unpeeled banana in half lengthwise (not too ripe) remove peel and nestle in the batter. Sprinkle with brown sugar.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 283
- Sugar: 17.2 g
- Sodium: 245.2 mg
- Fat: 8.7 g
- Saturated Fat: 1.2 g
- Carbohydrates: 48.1 g
- Fiber: 2.5 g
- Protein: 4.6 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
When do I put my starter in? Fed or unfed? And do I need to leave it rise on counter over night?
TIA
You can use unfed discard starter here. You add it in with the wet ingredients and proceed with the recipe instructions. It is still a quick bake, it doesn’t rise from the starter.
Could you kindly supply this recipe — which seems divine — in a gluten-free format for those of us thus restricted? Thank you so much!
A GF flour blend, like Bob’s Red Mill would be fine here!
Delicious! I subbed 1/3 cup of the flour for wheat germ and added a little flaked coconut along with walnuts. Thank you again for another great recipe!
Sounds great Deb!
Best ever!
Awesome to hear Josie- we love this one too!