Nigella Lawson’s chocolate and tahini banana bread is a dark, dense loaf built on overripe bananas, cocoa, dark chocolate chips and a slug of tahini for earthy depth. It bakes in a 1lb (450g) loaf tin at 170°C (150°C fan) for 45-50 minutes and gives about 10 slices, with sesame seeds scattered over the cracked top.
The recipe is from Cook, Eat, Repeat (2020), where it appears as one half of “Chocolate, Tahini and Banana Two Ways”, the origin bake that Nigella later turned into a warm pudding. On the tahini itself, she’s specific: seek out proper Middle Eastern tahini, smokier and more fluid, over the stiff Mediterranean kind she’s bent “more spoons than Uri Geller” trying to stir.
That tahini is what separates this from an ordinary banana loaf. It brings a rich, savoury earthiness that stops the chocolate reading as simply sweet, closer to a grown-up brownie than a teatime cake. The bananas soften the texture, the cocoa and chocolate darken it, and the tahini pulls it all into something velvety.
Nigella Lawson Chocolate and Tahini Banana Bread
Course: DessertCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy10
servings15
minutes45
minutes215
kcal1
hour5
minutesNigella’s darkly sophisticated banana bread from Cook, Eat, Repeat, an all-in-one-bowl batter with no creaming and no fuss. Bakes in a small 1lb tin, and she swears it’s better left a day before slicing. Easily doubled for a 2lb tin with no change to the timing.
Ingredients
250g (approx. 2 medium) very ripe or overripe bananas (skin-on weight)
60ml olive or vegetable oil
50g tahini, at room temperature (see intro)
1 large egg, at room temperature
50g caster sugar
35g soft dark brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
60g plain flour (or gluten-free plain flour)
25g cocoa
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
¼ tsp fine sea salt
100g dark chocolate chips
1½ tsp sesame seeds, to sprinkle on top
Directions
- Prepare: Heat the oven to 170°C/150°C fan and put a paper liner into a 1lb (450g) loaf tin.
- Mash and beat the wet ingredients: Peel the bananas and mash them by hand or with an electric mixer, then beat in the oil. Nigella measures the oil in a 60ml (¼ cup) measure, then fills the same cup with tahini, since 60ml of tahini conveniently weighs 50g, and beats that in too. Beat in the egg, then the sugars and vanilla.
- Add the dry ingredients: Whisk the flour, cocoa, bicarbonate of soda and salt together, then beat slowly into the batter until no specks of white remain. Fold in the chocolate chips with a flexible spatula, which you’ll need to scrape the runny batter into the tin. Sprinkle over the sesame seeds.
- Bake: Bake for 45-50 minutes until risen and firm to the touch, or until a tester comes out almost clean; stray chocolate chips can leave it a little sticky in parts. Don’t worry about the cracks on top, which Nigella says are part of its deal.
- Cool and rest: Cool completely in the tin on a wire rack. If you can wait, once cold slip it out, wrap in baking parchment then foil, and leave a day before slicing. Nigella admits she doesn’t always manage the wait.
Notes
- Kit: a 1lb (450g) loaf tin.
FAQs
Does the type of tahini really matter?
Nigella thinks so, and she’s specific about it. She recommends proper Middle Eastern tahini, which she describes as smokier, more fluid and full-bodied, over the stiffer Mediterranean sort that’s more widely stocked. The looser tahini blends into the runny batter more easily and brings a rounder flavour.
That said, plenty of home bakers report a fine loaf with ordinary thick supermarket tahini, so don’t abandon the recipe if that’s all you have. Just bring it to room temperature first, since cold tahini seizes and is harder to beat in smoothly. The flavour difference is real but the bake is forgiving.
How ripe should the bananas be?
Very. You want 250g of very ripe or overripe bananas, weighed with their skins on, which is roughly 2 medium. The blacker and softer they are, the sweeter and more fragrant the loaf, and the easier they mash into the batter without lumps.
Nigella has a use for the skins too: she points you to the banana skin and cauliflower curry elsewhere in Cook, Eat, Repeat, in keeping with the book’s low-waste streak. If your bananas aren’t ripe enough, the loaf still works but tastes noticeably less sweet, so it’s worth the wait.
Can I make it vegan?
Yes, and Nigella gives exact adjustments. Leave out the egg, raise the bananas to 350g and the tahini to 75g. The extra banana and tahini compensate for the binding and moisture the egg would have provided, though she’s honest that the loaf won’t rise as much without it.
She promises the taste is still magnificent. Check your dark chocolate chips are genuinely dairy-free, since some aren’t. It’s the same plant-based approach behind her vegan lemon polenta cake, where she uses an almond-soy yogurt to keep an egg-free bake tender.
Why leave it a day before eating?
Resting deepens the flavour and firms the crumb. Freshly baked, this loaf is squidgy and soft, closer to warm brownie, which is delicious but harder to slice cleanly. Left wrapped for a day, the cocoa and tahini flavours settle and intensify, and the texture sets into proper banana-bread density.
Nigella confesses she doesn’t always hold out, and neither do most people who make it. If you can’t wait, expect a gooier, more pudding-like slice straight from the tin, which some bakers actively prefer. Wrapping it in parchment then foil is what keeps it from drying while it rests.
Can I double it or bake it in a bigger tin?
Easily. Nigella says you can double the quantities to fill a 2lb (900g) loaf tin, and that it doesn’t make an appreciable difference to the baking time, so start checking at the same 45-50 minute mark. That’s unusual for a doubled loaf, so trust the tester over the clock.
The small 1lb tin is deliberate, giving a modest loaf of about 10 slices. If you only have a 2lb tin, doubling is the better route than baking a single quantity in it, since a thin batter in a large tin bakes unevenly and dries at the edges.
What’s the pudding version I’ve heard about?
That’s the other half of the pair. In the book this bread sits under “Chocolate, Tahini and Banana Two Ways”, and Nigella developed a warm pudding from the very same flavour base, which is the version that aired on her BBC Two series. She described the loaf as having an elegant subtlety, then found herself enraptured by it as a warm, squidgy pud.
For the pudding she serves it with a tahini cream, 4 teaspoons of tahini whisked briefly into 250ml of double cream, and a drizzle of date molasses. It shares the same dark, brownie-adjacent character as her chocolate raspberry pudding cake, another Nigella bake that’s best eaten warm and soft.
