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Here’s a healthy delicious recipe for Sesame Crusted Banana Bread. Feel free to use sourdough starter (optional) and keep it VEGAN (also optional). Either way, you’ll love how moist and flavorful it is, and the addition of fresh ginger and sesame seeds give it a beautiful unique twist!
I have a confession. I think this may be the first banana bread I’ve ever made! It’s my friend Tonia’s recipe and turned out wonderfully flavorful and moist and makes good use of the sourdough starter (optional) we both have in our fridge.
This Banana Bread recipe is vegan, or feel to use eggs- either way you’ll love the texture and flavors here!
If you don’t have sourdough starter, not to worry, just add more mashed banana and extra baking powder (see recipe notes!).
How to Make Vegan Banana Bread
What I love about this Banana Bread recipe is the beautiful Sesame Seed Crust!
Step One: To make the crust, oil a loaf and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Step Two:
I you want to keep the Banana Bread vegan, make “flax eggs” – mixing ground flax seeds and water. Otherwise whisk 2 eggs.
Step Three: Mash 1 cup of ripe banana.
Step Four: Measure out 3/4 cup of sourdough starter. ( or sub this with ¾ more mashed banana- see recipe notes).
Step Five: Peel and grate some ginger.
Fresh grated ginger gives the Banana Bread and nice flavor- feel free to add a little more for extra punch.
Step Six: Mix the batter up in a bowl with the oil, spices, salt, baking powder, baking soda, maple syrup. Feel free to add nuts.
My husband likes walnuts but do as you please.
Step Seven : Pour the battering the sesame lined loaf pan.
To create a pretty top, split a banana (less ripe is better here) and sprinkle with brown sugar or coconut sugar.
Step Eight: Bake in a 350F oven for 50-55 minutes.
Remove the Banana Bread from the pan and behold the lovely crust!
Step Nine: Make the Maple Tahini Sauce – it is seriously good- so please don’t skip this!!!
Slice up the banana bread, toast it if you like and drizzle on the sauce.
Whether you have sourdough starter to use up or not, we think you’ll love this Vegan Banana Bread!
Happy Baking!
Sylvia and Tonia
More recipes you might enjoy!
- Sourdough Pancakes
- Meyer Lemon Loaf Cake with Pistachios
- Maple Pecan Scones
- Sourdough Scones with Lemony Glaze
- Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins with Dried Cherries
Healthy Vegan Banana Bread
- 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
This vegan Banana Bread is not only healthy and delicious , it can be made with sourdough starter or discard! Infused with ginger, spices and crusted with sesame seeds it is flavorful and moist.
Ingredients
Flax eggs (optional, or sub 2 large eggs)
- 2 tablespoons ground flax seeds
- 1/3 cup water
Loaf Pan Prep: (optional, or sub parchment)
- 1 teaspoon oil – avocado oil, olive oil , grapeseed oil, etc.
- 3 tablespoons sesame seeds
Wet ingredients:
- 1 cup (3 bananas) ripe banana, mashed
- 1/4 cup oil, (avocado oil, olive oil, grapeseed oil or other )
- 3/4 cup sourdough starter discard (or see notes for substitution)
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1/4 cup coconut sugar, (or brown sugar)
- 1 tablespoon ginger root, freshly grated (or 1 teaspoon ground ginger)
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon allspice
Dry Ingredients:
- 2 cups (250 grams) flour, all-purpose
- 3/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
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
- Make the Flax Eggs: Mix the flax seeds and water in a small bowl, set aside.
- Prep Loaf Pan: Oil a 9 x 5 loaf pan with the teaspoon of oil. Sprinkle sesame seeds in pan on top of the oil, shake pan around so they are coating the bottom and sides fairly evenly. Set pan aside.
- WET: In a large bowl, whisk mashed banana, oil, sourdough starter (see notes) , maple syrup, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, allspice and flax mixture together until well blended.
- DRY: In a small bowl mix flour, salt, baking powder & baking soda
- Combine: Add flour mixture to wet and stir to just combined. 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 45-50 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
Feel free to use 2 real eggs instead of flax eggs.
Feel free to use 3/4 cup more mashed banana instead of sourdough starter, plus 1 addional teaspoon baking powder.
Feel free to add nuts, seeds, chocolate chips or nibs to the batter.
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
Keywords: Vegan Banana bread, healthy banana bread, sourdough banana bread, sourdough discard recipes, vegan banana bread recipes,
WOW!!! I have been using the same banana bread recipe for 30 years from an old(beloved) bed & breakfast cookbook, so enticing me to change was big! When I saw your recipe I decided to go for it. AMAZING!!! So flavorful and I can’t believe what a grand difference the seasame seeds make! Adding the banana to top makes it feel like I am a real baker! Thank you SO much for your creative yet approachable recipes. You are the Best!!!
★★★★★
Thanks Aimee, so lovely to hear from you!
The sesame seeds are the wow factor in this recipe! I used real eggs and followed the notes for extra banana in place of sourdough starter. I omitted the sugar and, next time, will decrease the maple syrup, because the extra banana makes this loaf plenty sweet.
★★★★★
Great to hear Herta and thanks for sharing your adaptions!
Sylvia! Great recipe! I’m snowed in so I used what I had.
Subbed egg replacement from flax eggs, black sesame for white, date syrup for maple cuz i only have enough for the tahini sauce, used 5 bananas vs. sds, and added a teaspoon of 5 spice powder in addition to freshly ground allspice & half if your recommendation for cinnamon. So bummed, I forgot the nuts, but with the sesame hopefully that shines through. Didn’t do the toppings since I didn’t have an less ripe banana.
Can’t wait to enjoy it!
★★★★★
So glad you were able to make this work Kathey!
Awesome Heather!
Please consider including weights in your recipes. Many of us vastly prefer weights over volume since it avoids discrepancies in measurements and insures a reproducible product, not to mention produces fewer dishes to wash! The recipe is interesting, but I likely won’t try it without weights (The banana, sourdough starter and brown sugar/coconut sugar are all places for significant volume measurement error).
Hi Mary- If you click on the “M” in the recipe card it should convert it to metric. 🙂
Made this banana bread yesterday. What an amazing and delicious recipe ! Just right on the sweetness and texture. I used ground ginger and instead of adding nuts, I chopped crystallized ginger
( 1/3 to 1/2 c. ) and added to the batter. What a fantastic pop of flavor. I also did the banana on top. So lovely. Did not have tahini so we made a peanut butter and honey spread. Although, it needs almost nothing . Great recipe ! Am enjoying your site and recipes.
★★★★★
We are so happy you enjoyed this Rebecca!
Loved it. Would never have thought to line the time with sesame seeds or the tahini spread. Like all your recipes inventive and delicious. Thank you x
Nice to hear Eilish, so glad you enjoyed!
This turned out great, eventhough I forgot the eggs. Fluffy, moist and with just the right amount of spice.
I love it!
Oh wow, good to know it works without the eggs!
Making sourdough for the first time using your simple sourdough starter. I made this banana bread with the discard from today and WOW! I was a little skeptical with the flavor profile but gave it a shot anyway. My fresh ginger was moldy so I used ginger powder. I used two eggs instead of flax. I topped with the banana halves as directed. It took the full 50 mins for my oven.
For the spread, I threw out my expired tahini a while ago so I subbed in unsweetened sunflower butter. I used unrefined coconut oil because I prefer the coconut flavor. Everything was AMAZING! I can’t get over how delicious it was and how easily it removed from the loaf pan without leaving behind a huge mess or chunks of bread (that often happens to me so I resort to lining it with parchment, but I only used the avocado oil and sesame seeds like the recipe calls for this time).
★★★★★
I love it Taylor! Your adaptations are inspiring, so happy this worked for you!
This is absolutely the best banana bread we’ve ever had! I made the version you make with sourdough discard and gave some to our neighbors/friends. They think so too. Our consensus is also that the Tahini/Maple/Coconut Oil drizzle is not optional at all and you’re right about it being heavenly!
I didn’t have chocolate chips so I crumbled some dark chocolate and sunk the pieces below the top. This made them open the top of the loaf in the same way as scoring sourdough bread does. I sprinkled the top with more sesame seeds, some golden flax seeds and a little flaked sea salt for sparkle 🙂
Thank you again Sylvia and Tonia… So appreciate you!
★★★★★
I love it Monica! You have taken it to a new level! Yummy.