Chocolate, Tahini, Walnut, Banana Bread

Ingredients:

110g unsalted butter, soft and cut into cubes

210g unrefined caster sugar

2 medium free-range eggs, lightly beaten

100g ground almonds

90g spelt flour

small pinch of sea salt

1/2 (level) tsp baking powder

1/2 (level) tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 (level) tsp cinnamon powder

350g ripe bananas (roughly 3-4)

85g buttermilk / milk with a few drops of lemon juice / plain yoghurt

1 tsp vanilla extract

5 tbsp tahini paste

90g dark chocolate (at least 70% cocao is preferable), roughly chopped

1 large handful of walnuts, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees on the fan setting and grease and line a 10 inch cake tin with baking parchment or use a standard loaf tin (21cm long, 11cm wide and 7cm high).

In a large mixing bowl add the butter and sugar and beat together with an electric hand whisk until light and fluffy. This will take about 5 minutes. Then beat in a little of the beaten eggs followed by a little of the dry ingredients (ground almonds, spelt flour, sea salt, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon powder mixed together). Make sure everything is mixed in well before adding in more eggs and flour. Continue until all is incorporated and you have a light brown batter.

In a separate bowl add the bananas and buttermilk and use a fork to roughly mash everything together. It is supposed to be lumpy and textured. Add in the tahini and mix round twice, do not over mix! Then add the buttermilk banana mix to the other bowl followed by the walnuts and chopped chocolate. Use a spatula to carefully mix the batter a few times! Scrape into the prepared tin and into the oven for 60 minutes. Check at this point to see if the top is golden brown and then remove from the oven and cover top with tin foil. Place back in for a further 20 minutes. It is ready when a skewer inserted comes out fairly clean. Note all of this will take longer if using a loaf tin! Leave to cool on a wire rack completely before slicing!

Would love to hear what you thought if you make this! Please leave comments below!