Bored with all the traditional recipes for banana bread?
Here is a unique variation on the traditional banana bread recipe—one replete with optional (and tasty) Middle Eastern vibes. (If you are a banana bread traditionalist, don’t pass this recipe up because of the perhaps-unfamiliar Middle Eastern ingredients. This bread is very very good any way you prepare it– served plain or drizzled with the exotic tahini and honey sauce. )
This Banana Bread comes from Yotam Ottolenghi’s cookbook, Plenty More. The book can be ordered through your local bookstore or purchased through Amazon here.
Over the nine years of Blue Cayenne’s existence, I’ve happily cooked many Ottolenghi recipes–particularly the early cookbooks that featured Ottolenghi’s collaboration with Palestinian chef Sami Tamimi. I’ve featured a few of the recipes on Blue Cayenne. Here, for instance, is a link to another favorite Ottolenghi recipe: Tandoori Chickpeas. That recipe is exceptional. Trust me, you need to make this one…soon! Here is a photo:
Ottolenghi and his gifted cooking crew (Helen Goh, Verena Lochmuller and Tara Wigley) just published a new cookbook, Ottolenghi Comfort. I’ll keep you posted on my cooking adventures in that book. (I have my eye on a recipe for Coconut Rice With Peanut Sauce and Cucumber Relish. How wonderful does that sound?)
Here is the recipe for the Tahini and Honey Banana Bread as I prepared it in my kitchen.
Tahini and Honey Banana Bread
Ingredients
- For Banana Bread:
- 2 C. pecans (chopped)
- 3 large ripe bananas
- 1 1/4 C. packed light brown sugar
- 3 eggs (lightly beaten)
- 1/2 C. plus 1 1/2 T. whole milk
- 5 T. grapeseed or safflower oil
- 2 C. all-purpose flour
- 1 t. baking soda
- 1 1/2 t. baking powder
- For the Tahini Sauce
- 5 1/2 T. unsalted butter (softened)
- 1/4 C. tahini paste
- 7 oz. honey
- 3/4 t. coarse sea salt
- Crushed pistachios (optional)
Directions
- Step 1 Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line a 9 inch by 5 inch loaf pan with parchment.
- Step 2 Bake pecans for 10 minutes in the oven on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Remove from the oven, cool and chop coarsely. Set aside.
- Step 3 Mash bananas and put them in the bowl of your stand mixer along with the sugar and eggs. Mix. Add 1/2 t. salt and milk into the banana mixture. Add the oil and mix.
- Step 4 Sift flour, baking powder and baking soda and add to the banana mixture in the bowl of your stand mixer. Beat at medium speed for about 5 minutes.
- Step 5 Stir in the chopped (and baked) pecans. Spoon the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake for about one hour until a skewer stuck into the middle of the loaf comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack.
- Step 6 Prepare the optional tahini sauce. Stir the tahini paste into the softened butter to mix thoroughly.
- Step 7 To serve the banana bread with the tahini sauce, spoon butter/tahini sauce over slices of the bread. (The original recipe called for grilling the bread on one side before drizzling on the sauce.) Drizzle honey over the tahini sauce and sprinkle coarse sea salt to taste over the slices of banana bread. Sprinkle (optional) finely-ground pistachios over the bread. Serve.
