Baking Claire Saffitz's Almond Butter Banana Bread

Hi everyone! Welcome back!

Today, I’m continuing on with the 2nd recipe from Claire Saffitz’s book, “Dessert Person”.

I’m making Almond Butter Banana Bread.

This is another simple loaf recipe that can be made any time of year. This time, I had all the ingredients except for whole-milk Greek yogurt. Unlike the last one, that makes this recipe *not* dairy-free.

Here’s a look at the recipe, which is on page 38:

I followed the recipe in weight measurements in grams using an Ozeri scale.

Necessary equipment includes a 4½ by 8½ in loaf pan, parchment paper, 3 bowls (small, medium, large), a whisk (or a hand mixer), and a wire rack. Oh, and your oven of course.

My bananas weren’t ripe when I wanted to bake and I didn’t want to wait a few days, so I took a shortcut.

Preheat your oven to 300 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. That’s to catch the oils from the bananas and for easy clean up later. Then, line the pan with 2 to 3 bananas.

And bake them for 30 to 40 minutes. Once done, they should be black and very soft. Let them cool completely before using!

Now, time to start the recipe.

Preheat to 350 and prepare your loaf pan. Coat it with some coconut oil (I used a spray).

And then place a cut piece of parchment paper so that it drapes over the long sides.

Next, time to measure out all the ingredients.

You will need…

130g almond butter
143g sugar [pictured: coconut sugar]
115g coconut oil, liquefied
173g all purpose flour
4g baking powder
3g kosher salt
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp ground cardamom
2 large eggs, cold from the fridge
227g mashed ripe banana
80g whole-milk Greek yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
Optional: 60g unsalted roasted almonds

Okay, on to the Almond Butter Swirl Topping next. This is going to go on top of the bread later.

Grab your small bowl and from the ingredients you already measured out, take 3 tablespoons of almond butter and put it into the bowl. Then, measure out 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1 tsp of liquefied coconut oil. Using a whisk, stir everything together until nice and smooth. Set it aside for later.

On to the dry ingredients. Add them all to your large bowl. The all purpose flour, baking powder, kosher salt, baking soda, and ground cardamom. Whisk, whisk and mix everything together.

Next is the wet ingredients in the medium bowl. Pour in the cold eggs and whisk to break up the yolks and whites. Add the rest of your sugar, and whisk again until the mixture is smooth and slightly thick.

Add the mashed banana, Greek yogurt, vanilla extract, rest of the almond butter, and rest of the coconut oil. Then whisk until the mixture is smooth and homogeneous. It’s okay to have a few lumps of banana, like I do here.

Then pour your wet mixture into the dry mixture and whisk!

Pour your homogenous mixture into a pan. You may need to use a rubber spatula to help you get it all out.

Use the spatula to smooth out the top. Now it’s time for that swirl topping from earlier. Using a teaspoon, scoop some dollops on top of your loaf mixture. You don’t need to use it all, just a handful will do. Then, grab a paring knife and draw figure 8s all across the top.

When you’re done, it should look something like this:

I actually made this recipe twice and both times tasted the same, but the first time was not as pretty. The first time, I added all of the swirl topping and used a toothpick to try to make the pattern. Since the entire top was covered, there was no pattern haha. So that’s why I suggest to use just a few handfuls and a paring knife instead.

Okay set it in the oven and bake for 60 to 70 minutes. I baked mine for 65 minutes, but used the toothpick test to make sure it was baked through all the way.

Let it cool in the pan for 20 minutes first before using an offset spatula to loosen the sides.

Then place it onto a drying rack to finish cooling.

And then it’s ready to taste! Cut yourself a few slices.

I baked a lot of banana bread over the pandemic, but never one with almond butter. The almond butter made it very soft, almost falling apart. It also kept the bread from being too sweet. Bananas get sweeter as they ripen because their starch breaks down into sugar. My bananas were very ripe (as you saw) and I was expecting overly sweet bread, but the almond butter balanced it out. You can also taste a hint of cardamom towards the end.