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
Made this bread today but used extra bananas instead of sourdough starter. Wet yummy bread. My favorite now. Thank you, Sylvia! Your website is number 1 in my book! You are the best!
Thanks Dana- glad you enjoyed this!
I have made in my 56 yrs more banana bread than you could imagine! This is absolutely hands down the best I have EVER made!!! Thank You!!!
That’s amazing Lorie, thanks so much for sharing. 😊
I made this last night to use up some discard and it was terrific. Added choc chips because, chocolate. My husband said he was the best banana bread he has ever eaten.. and he is not one to use absolutes freely.
Thank you!!
Great to hear Ali!
Always looking for ways to use up discard and this loaf looks fantastic! Would love it if you could include metric measurements for your recipes 🙂
Hi Emilye- sorry about that, the next time I make this I will add. 🙂
Do you think I could substitute honey for the maple syrup? Syrup is hard to get here in NZ, but honey is abundant.
Yes!
hello! can i ask if i can use whole wheat flour or oat flour? and how should I make the adjustments? thank you 🙂
Yes, they both sound great. Maybe 1/2 of each? The key is to weigh the flour as wheat is heavier than white flour. The weight measurement will be the same as stated in the recipe.
Yum! I made half the recipe with all purpose flour and the other with almond flour… both turned out great! Equal amounts of flour in both recipes.
The all purpose flour made it have a denser, bouncy consistency while the almond flour left it more moist. I would maybe recommend keeping it in the oven for another minute or two if you use almond flour.
Thanks for the recipe!
Oh cool! Thanks for sharing!
Hi. Can ibmake this without baking powder and baking soda?
No, I think it needs both in this case.
Just made this banana bread. Fantastic! It turned out really well and tastes great. Used our own eggs as we have a chicken who is treated like one of the family so we feel we can eat her eggs. Also made the sourdough bread, second one was much better than the first and have a 3rd on the way at the moment. Thanks very much for your recipes. Sheena from Marbella Spain.
A returning success in our home! The fresh ginger gives a nice sharp kick. My favorite way of using sourdough discard! I use less sugar when my bananas are really ripe. And always keep some slices in the freezer for an excellent work lunch. Thank you so much for this recipe, Sylvia!
This recipe is quite good. I live at 7,500 ft altitude so it took about 65-70 minutes to bake (next time I’ll add flour).
Question: Can the bread be sliced and frozen? Will it taste as good?
It is always best fresh, but I’m guessing it should hold up fine sliced and forzen as long as you seal it well. 🙂
Amazing bread! I Was intrigued by the ginger. I would probably add a touch more next time. Didn’t have all spice, so I used nutmeg which worked fine. Topped with enjoy life Chocolate chips and banana. Loved the tahini sauce! Truly decadent. Overall 10/10 🙂
So happy you liked this!
Wonderful bread! Probably the best banana bread I have tasted!
I followed the recipe to the letter except for the bananas on top (next time!). I felt really good using my sourdough discard (my very first time!). I added some freshly toasted walnuts.
The loaf is moist, not too sweet. The sesame seeds make it very elegant looking and add to the flavour.
Sylvia, thank you for all the beautiful recipes you create and all the tips you share. You are truly inspiring!
Glad this worked for you!!!
Wonderful I left out the oil and used 1/2 cup banana!
Thanks for your great recipes!
This loaf is delicious! I didn’t have sour dough discard so I also made the vegan version. I am going to try it again with chopped dates (in addition to walnuts) and leave out the brown sugar just to experiment…but either way, I know it will be good! I couldn’t believe how moist and tasty it turned out even though it is vegan (this is a far cry from another vegan banana bread recipe I found on Google a couple of months ago that was so dry it crumbled when I put a fork into it lol)! From that experience, I was tempted to conclude that delicious vegan banana bread must not be possible…so thank you for sharing this, Sylvia!!
Glad you enjoyed and thanks to my friend Tonia! She created the recipe.
This is now my favorite Banana Bread recipe ! Great use for sourdough discard and a beautiful loaf when it comes out of the oven. I love making it for friends and enjoy watching their reaction when they first set eyes on this beauty. ; )
Will almond flour work with this loaf?
Thanks Debbie so happy you are enjoying it! Not sure about almond flour? If you try it, will you let us know?
This was so comforting and I love the use of sourdough discard and flax egg. I’m not sure why, my crust came out kinda tough, any ideas? thank you for your amazing recipes Sylvia!! xx
Did you use convection by chance?
yes I did!
yes, my oven is convection!
This was an awesome recipe, Sylvia!
I did NOT have the energy to do sourdough, so I followed your vegan option instructions…
also, I only had whole wheat flour and 3 ripe bananas, so I added another 1/4 cup of oil (1/2 cup total) and added an additional full teaspoon of baking soda as per your instructions.
The loaf came out beautiful and yummy.
Great to hear Jennifer- thanks so much for the info- super helpful!
I just made this and it is so delicious. I wasn’t going to make the Tahini Maple spread but decided to give it a try. What a yummy topping! Between the sourdough bread and now this, I’m likely to gain a few pounds but that’s okay. Completely worth it.
Haha! I know – I love the spread- soooooo tasty!
Our multi-generational family LOVED this! Great use of sourdough 🙂
Trying it today but not until I’ve had a buttered slice of the sourdough bread that just came out of the oven. I love your recipes! Thanks so much.
This sourdough banana bread was out of this world! My family ate the whole loaf and there are only four of us! So good!!
Yay Josie! We devoured it too!
So good, and the Tahini Maple Spread this is a must-try for people who love that perfect balance of salty and sweet.
I know- it’s pretty tasty!
Very nice Banana Bread recipe! Made for an amazing breakfast this morning. As well perfect to use my sourdough discard, as I hate to waste food.
Skipped the Tahini Maple Souce as we are trying to cut on the sugars while locked at home. The bread itself was perfect not too sweet, just the right amount.
Thank you!
Perfect, I’m so glad you liked it.
This turned out very good. Added walnuts which is expected in my family and everyone raved. Great use of my sourdough discard.