Another lovely recipe from Jamie Oliver’s healthy cookbook Everyday Super Food. It’s a banana bread that is very flavoursome and sweet with remarkably, no sugar! The sweetness comes from the bananas, dried figs and apple. This quirky writer has a sweet tooth, and this recipe really satisfies me.
Reading and cooking recipes from Jamie’s book I’m appreciating that cooking with healthy eating in mind doesn’t mean cutting down on deliciousness. Jamie’s Smoothie Pancakes full of blueberries that I cooked recently, are luscious, sweet and satisfying.
Ingredients
250g dried figs
75ml cold pressed rapeseed oil
125g natural yoghurt
1 tbs vanilla extract
4 ripe bananas
2 large free-range eggs
150g wholemeal self-raising flour
1 heaped tsp baking powder
100g ground almonds
1 tbs poppy seeds
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 apple
50g whole almonds (skin on)
Method
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Line a 25cm baking tin with with scrunched sheet of wet greaseproof paper. (You could bake the mixture in a large loaf tin for the more conventional banana bread look. I like the cake tin idea as the bread is so sweet and so rather cake-like.)
Place 200g of the figs in food processor with the oil, yoghurt, vanilla extract, peeled and roughly chopped bananas and eggs. Blitz until smooth.
Add the flour, baking powder, ground almonds, poppy seeds and turmeric and pulse until only just combined. Coarsely grate and then stir in the apple.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and spread out evenly. Tear or chop the remaining 50g figs into pieces. Scatter over the mixture, pushing them in slightly. Chop the almonds and scatter over. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until until a skewer inserted into the bread comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Serve as is, or with any combination of yoghurt, honey and home-made nut butter. I made brazil nut butter to serve with my banana bread.
Nut butter
To make 1 jar:
Place 200g of any unsalted nuts in a preheated 180 degrees C oven on a baking tray. Bake for 8-10 minutes, then remove from the oven and leave to cool for at least 5 minutes. Tip the nuts into the food processor with a small pinch of sea salt and blitz. The blitzing takes a while for the nuts to be finely ground and then to turn into nut butter. Stop blitzing occasionally and scrape down the the sides of the processor. When the nut butter is the consistency you personally like – from crunchy through to super smooth – store in a jar.
The Quirk and the Cool 
Pingback: Banana and Date Cake with Salted Caramel Buttercream Icing « The Quirk and the Cool
Pingback: BananaFigBread – intergalacticengineer
I made this banana bread today with dates and it turned out gooey in the middle. I did think the batter was rather runny but pushed my judgements aside since it was a new recipe for me.
Other than swapping figs for dates I didn’t deviate front the recipe so I have no idea what went wrong. Oh well, we’ve all had baking flops. I discovered your local blog a month or so ago and I love it 🙂
LikeLike
Hi Lyf, I’m sorry the batter was runny. I wonder why that was – I wouldn’t have thought the dates would be the problem – I’ll have a think about it and get back to you if I have any ideas. Glad you like the blog! Cheers, Inga
LikeLike
My bread was runny and not cooked either. It was in the oven for ages too. I’m so disappointed
LikeLike
Hi Catherine, I’m not sure why your banana bread was not cooked. I’ve checked Jamie’s recipe and the temperature and times are what he specifies. My bread has turned out ok. How long did you end up cooking the bread? My suggestion would be to go a little longer – the old skewer test is usually the best guide to cooking times.
Other than cooking for longer, I’m not sure what else to suggest. I’ll keep on thinking!
LikeLike
Dry figs are flatter and have less liquid than dates, try them next time.. dates are often used as the combining mixture for energy balls and a base for ‘raw’ cheesecakes as they have that wetter moisture in them where dry figs really are quite dry, flat and the perfect accompaniment for ‘bread’…
LikeLike
Mine was in the oven for nearly 1.5 hours, I think using less banana or wringing the shredded apple might help. It’s still delicious though.
LikeLike
I wish I had read these comments before I started. My battery was very runny too, but I figured it’s a new recipe. I also kept checking it and after an hour and 10 minutes decided to take it out and let it cool, but when I cut it open it was still mushy inside! I’m putting it back in the oven but I doubt it’ll turn out now. 😦 for some reason it seems light on the flour for all that liquid. Next time I might just try one egg and two bananas. Normally in banana bread you don’t blame the bananas either you mash them. It has the potential to be a good recipe though, it definitely needs to be tweaked.
LikeLike
Sarah I did the same and put it back in the oven for another 45 minutes or so but by that stage it was a goner. It has a delicious flavor but the wet:dry ratio is inaccurate. Let me know if you bravely attempt to make it again and I’ll do the same.
LikeLike
Made this recipe but left out the apple and added a small amount of brown sugar. Fantastic result.
LikeLike
I’m so glad your banana bread making had a good result! I love the recipe and it has worked well for me. Cheers,
Inga
LikeLike
I made this last night and it turned out perfect! Followed the recipe to the letter and had no problems. It is absolutely delicious, we had it for breakfast this morning with some berries and yogurt 🙂
LikeLike
So glad the banana bread turned out well! I love the recipe – somewhere between a cake and a bread. Cheers, Inga
LikeLike
I am in the States and followed this recipe to the letter. I even used a metric scale 😉 so I was dead on. Changed the Celsius to Fahrenheit…which came out to 355 F. Generally here we bake breads such as these, @ 350 F, but I stayed at the 355 F. It came out SOOOOO Wonderful and delicious!! Did take a bit longer but I kept checking with a skewer. The only change I made was a NO sugar streusel topping: 50 g dried figs, 50 g chopped almonds, 50 g dark chocolate chips,1 teaspoon cinnamon, 20 g flour and 2 Tablespoons melted salted butter. Mixed it all together really good and spread on top. YUM!
LikeLike
Hi Judy, I’m so glad it turned out well! It’s a great Jamie recipe. Your no sugar streusel topping sounds fab! Cheers Inga
LikeLike
Pingback: Review of Jamie Oliver’s Everyday Super Food - Easy Peasy Foodie