It’s no secret that I’m a little obsessed with Banana Bread. In Australia, it’s a staple on every cafes menu and I love how adaptable it is. Is it cake? Is it bread? Should I have a slice as an afternoon treat? Or should I toast it and top it with berries and vegan crème Fraiche as an indulgent Sunday breakfast? The answer is YES. To all the possibilities.
I’ve already posted a banana bread recipe which I still love to bake. However, when I found this one I was incredibly excited because it was super simple and as far as baked goods were concerned, healthy!! This is because it’s sweetened with maple syrup and there’s also an option to make it completely oil-free. I find using a little oil makes it slightly fluffier but the oil-free recipe works well too so you can adapt this recipe based on where you sit on the ‘healthy scale.’ I also use wholemeal flour and the result is just as delicious!
It’s also totally fuss-free and requires no electric mixer. Just place dry ingredients in a bowl, wet ingredients in another bowl and then mix together. I must say, it’s liberating not to have to use an egg replacement such as aquafaba as I can make this banana bread incredibly quickly with very little preparation. Also, if you don’t have vegan ingredients like plant milk and plant yoghurt, use dairy instead! Oh, and did I mention it was chocolate? Yep. It tastes indulgent but is kind to the waist-line…surely that ticks all boxes?
I found the original recipe here but as always I have made a couple of tweaks!
This recipe uses US cups. My measuring cup can be found HERE. But if you don’t have this just use UK cup sizes!
Ingredients:
- 2 cups wholemeal, spelt or white flour (340g)
- 2 tbl cocoa or cacao
- 1 tsp bicarb (baking soda)
- ¾ tsp baking powder
- ¾ tsp salt
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ½ cup dark choc chips
- 1 ½ cups mashed banana (360g) I use either 3 large bananas or 4 small ones, don’t sweat it!
- ½ cup plant-based yoghurt (or if you’re not vegan just use dairy if that’s all you have)
- ½ cup maple syrup
- 1/3 cup of olive oil or milk (I use half/half of both)
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 180c (350f) and grease a 9×5 loaf pan
- Measure out milk and then pour 1 tsp of lemon juice in and leave to curdle (this is optional but I find buttermilk makes my bakes extra fluffy!)
- Combine dry ingredients in a bowl
- Combine wet ingredients in a bowl (tip the buttermilk in last)
- Mix wet and dry ingredients together and pour into the loaf tin
- Bake for 1 hr 20 mins (check at about 1hr 10 minutes)