anna jones seeded banana bread with lemon sesame drizzle
Banana Bread
Anna Jones Seeded Banana Bread with Lemon Sesame Drizzle
One cold January week, I just couldn’t get away from banana bread. A loaf packed up in string and brown paper arrived in the post from a baker friend; another friend emailed me asking for my ultimate banana bread recipe; and I arrived at a third friend’s house to the smell of a loaf in the oven. The signs were there: It was a week for banana bread and a quest for the best loaf I could make.
Ingredients
125 grams plain flour (i use unbleached)
125 grams whole wheat or spelt flour
125 grams light brown sugar
150 grams little seeds (see headnote)
1 good pinch sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 medium, ripe bananas, peeled
zest and juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons natural or unsweetened soy yogurt or coconut yogurt
2 eggs, preferably organic or free-range, eggs, beaten
1 tablespoon tahini
3 tablespoons golden icing sugar, confectioners' sugar, or set honey
juice of 1 lemon
Directions
Preheat your oven to 400° F (200° C) . Butter and flour a non-stick 450-gram (1-pound) loaf tin (if your loaf tin is not non-stick, line it with parchment paper too).
Put all the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl—the flours, sugar, seeds, salt, and baking powder—and mix well.
In another bowl, mash the bananas with a fork (I like to keep them quite chunky), then add the lemon juice and zest, olive oil, yogurt, and eggs and mix well.
Mix the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients, taking care not to over-mix—just do enough to make sure it is all combined. Spoon into the loaf tin and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.
While your loaf is baking, make the lemon drizzle. Beat the tahini and confectioners' sugar in a bowl until smooth, squeeze in the lemon juice and mix well.
Take your loaf out of the oven and leave it in the pan until it is cool enough to move to a cooling rack. While the loaf is still warm, place a large plate under the rack, then skewer the cake all over, pour over the drizzle and leave it to sink in.
This is delicious on its own, thickly sliced, with a cup of coffee, but sometimes I like to spread the slices with a thick layer of almond or peanut butter.