This easy and healthy vegan banana bread is perfect for the next coffee date with your girlfriends, but also looks great at the breakfast table. Simple and plain, served with a little almond paste, it steals the show to regular bread. In addition, it is made from purely plant based ingredients with only natural sweeteners. So to speak, a banana bread without sugar, without eggs, milk and white flour. That makes this easy and super moist banana bread a delicious and healthy snack instead of the conventional chocolate and cookie. Even less experienced bakers will succeeds with this simple and quick banana bread recipe.
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This banana bread has been in my collection of recipes for quite a long time. Whenever we are invited somewhere and I want to bring something sweet, I either bake this super moist banana bread or my walnut cake from my ebook. So far, the banana bread has always had a great response. And often I am also asked for the recipe. No idea why I didn’t share it with you guys earlier. I’ll make up for that today!
The idea for this easy and healthy vegan banana bread came partly from curiosity, and partly from the fact that there are so many versions on the Internet, that I could not decide on any. Yes, I admit it, I have a hard time taking decisions. Therefore, I just developed my own vegan and super moist banana bread recipe.
Curiosity, by the way, because until that time I had never eaten banana bread in my life. And yes, I know that’s weird! Respectively after the first bite, I wondered why I waited so damn long to try it! Above all, it was important to me to develop not only a vegan, but a moist banana bread. What can I say, cakes just have to be moist with me!
Actually, this is a classic and very easy banana bread recipe. The only special ingredients – if you can even say so – are the almonds and almond butter. Which arises the question, what even is a classic vegan banana bread recipe? There are so many variations.
This banana bread recipe is kept very simple. And consists of bananas as the main sweetener, flour, quick oats, coconut oil, ground almonds and almond butter. The banana bread gets a little extra sweetness from date or yacon syrup. As you can see, nothing extravagant and therefore a classic recipe from my point of view. Of course, it can be modified in countless versions. You can add chocolate, fruit or whole nuts. It’s completely up to your imagination!
Provided you know a few little tricks, vegan baking really isn’t magic. You actually just need to know how to substitute eggs. Here you can find a detailed list with many possibilities.
A very simple option is to replace the egg with apple cider vinegar and baking powder / baking soda. I must say, this variant is the one I use the most. It’s super simple, and apple cider vinegar, as well as baking soda or baking powder are easy to find. When buying baking powder, make sure it is aluminum-free. You should not add too much baking soda, otherwise the cake will taste soapy. 5g, respectively 1 teaspoon is usually enough. You then add the baking powder / baking soda to the dry ingredients and the apple cider vinegar to the liquid ingredients. Or you can add them both at the end, when you’ve already mixed your cake batter.
For vegan cakes in general, you should not stir too much and for too long, otherwise they will not rise well in the oven. That’s why I leave out the food processor and just mix the ingredients very quickly with a spatula without stirring too much. If you use baking soda, from my experience the cake will tend to be a bit fluffier. With baking powder it remains more compact.
The perfect degree of ripeness of bananas is a subject of debate and crucial for a sweet banana bread, especially if not additionally sweetened with refined sugar. I know people who eat their bananas only when they are still slightly green or bright yellow, after that they don’t like them. Others still eat them even when they are already black. Opinions are divided on this. I like them best when they are fully ripe and deep yellow. As soon as they turn brown or get brown spots I prefer to use the bananas for smoothies, nice cream or banana bread.
Therefore, I would claim, in a banana bread belong bananas that are fully ripe and have brown spots. Then they have the perfect sweetness and you may not even need to re-sweeten depending on your taste. Of course, you can also try this recipe with bananas that are not yet fully ripe. However, the result will be much less sweet and you will definitely need the 60g of extra sweetness.
Gebana was kind enough to send me a shipment of their delicious“fair bananas” for this recipe. By the way, the bananas arrive in 18 kg package and are green. They are not imported green beforehand – as is usually the case – and then brought to ripen artificially. No, they ripen directly at your home. They also taste super delicious when green, for example as chips, in curries or as tartlets. When green, you can use them like plantains.
Mine are ripe by now. Some will be given away, the rest frozen for Nice Cream and smoothies. Or baked into banana bread or enjoyed just like that. You can find out more about “fair bananas” at gebana, where you can also order them .
In this banana bread recipe, you can freely combine and interchange ingredients as you please. I usually use spelt or whole wheat flour for banana bread, but you can use other types or even bake it gluten-free. You can also choose the sweetness according to your taste and use homemade date paste, rice syrup, maple syrup, yacon syrup or agave syrup instead of yacon syrup. It is important that you adjust the amount of sweetener depending on the sweetening power of the sweetener and the ripeness of the bananas. Also, if you use wheat flour, you may need less liquid.
You can omit the ground almonds and simply replace them with flour or use other ground nuts. You are also free to choose the nut butter you like. Peanut, cashew, macadamia or rather hazelnut? No problem all of them work!
Instead of coconut oil, regular oil should also work, but I have never tried it myself.
Bon appétit!
Easy and Healthy Vegan Banana Bread – Super Moist
Equipment
- 1 loaf pan 23x13x8 cm
- parchment paper to line the loaf pan
- 2 bowls
- 1 spatula
Ingredients
- 3 bananas approx. 280g
- 50 g coconut oil*
- 50 g almond butter*
- 60 g yacon syrup*
- 100 ml plant based milk, your choice
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 75 g oats, steel-cut
- 50 g almond meal
- 150 g spelt flour*
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 tsp baking powder*, approx. 5g
- 1 pinch of ground cinnamon
- 1 banana, as topping
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180° Celsius. Grease loaf pan with a little coconut oil and line with baking paper.
- Place coconut oil, almond paste and date syrup in a pan and heat gently until everything is melted and well combined. Allow the mixture to cool.
- Add vegetable milk and apple cider vinegar.
- Put all dry ingredients in a bowl and mix.
- Mash bananas into purée with a fork in another bowl and add the liquid ingredients. Mix everything together briefly.
- Pour liquid ingredients to dry ingredients and fold in with a spatula. Fold just enough so that everything is mixed to some degree. Do not stir the mixture too long, otherwise the cake will not rise well in the oven.
- Pour cake mixture into loaf pan. As a topping, cut a banana in half lengthwise and place it upside down on top of the banana bread. If you like, you can spread some date syrup on the banana halves.
- Bake the banana bread on the middle rack for 35 to 40 minutes.
Notes
*White or brown almond butter can be used.
*If you can’t find yacon syrup you can use date syrup, maple syrup or agave syrup.
*The spelt flour can also be substituted with whole wheat flour, wheat flour or gluten-free flour. However, the recipe has not been tested with these and less or more liquid may need to be added.
*Baking soda can also be used instead of baking powder.
Nutrition
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