Teff Tahini Banana Bread
Whole grain flours, legumes, and ancient grains are something I grew up eating regularly and cooked with a lot early in my career. Lately I have been working with them again as I reincorporate some traditional foods back into my repertoire.
Pereg Natural Foods sent me a box full of beautiful grains, flours, legumes, and spice blends, including the teff flour that inspired this recipe.
This is definitely an old school style, hearty, earthy loaf. The kind my grandmother would have made. Enjoy it with a cup of herbal tea or grain-based coffee for the full experience.
Teff Tahini Banana Bread
Prep time: 20 MinCook time: 50 MinTotal time: 1 H & 10 M
The loaf is moist, slightly dense, and earthy in a good way. Teff flour and tahini give this loaf a savory, satisfying depth. the Teff flour adds a whole grain texture, color and flavor reminiscent of a buckwheat bread. Bananas and coconut sugar offer a mild sweetness and caramel flavor.It's completely vegan and can be made gluten free by substituting gluten-free flour blend for the all-purpose flour.
Ingredients
- 2 cups (228 g) all-purpose flour (I used so einkorn flour)
- 1 cup (134 g) Teff flour
- 2 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1/4 tsp. fine sea salt
- 2/3 cup almond milk (or milk of choice)
- 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup (122 g) coconut sugar
- 1/2 cup tahini
- 4 very ripe bananas (1.5 cups mashed banana)
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 350° F and place a rack in the lower half of the oven.
- Oil an 8 X 4 -inch loaf pan.
- In a large mixing bowl stir together the all-purpose flour, teff flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
- Peel the bananas and mash them with a fork or a potato masher in a separate mixing bowl. Mash the bananas until they are almost liquid. If there are some small lumps of banana that is fine but the texture of most of the banana should be similar to a beaten egg.
- Stir the coconut sugar into the mashed banana, then stir in the tahini and mix it well.
- Add the milk, vanilla, and vinegar to the banana mash and stir everything together.
- Pour the banana mixture into the center of the flour mixture in the other bowl and mix until it all comes together into a batter.
- Pour the batter into the oiled loaf pan.
- Put the pan in the preheated oven and bake the bread until the bread smells sweet and fragrant, the center of the loaf has risen above the edge of the pan, it looks brown and shiny, and a cake tester or knife inserted in the center comes out mostly clean, about 50 minutes. The bread is denser than a traditional banana bread so it may leave a slight crumb on the tester.
- Cool the bread for about five minutes in the pan before turning it out onto a rack to cool completely.
- Store bread tightly wrapped, in the refrigerator for up to a week or in the freezer for up to three months.
