Chocolate banana bread is the ultimate cosy food for me. A warm kitchen while the weather outside is cold. The joy of just being home and spending time with your family or the people you surround yourself with. Banana bread symbolizes all these sensations to me with its rustic look and wonderful taste.
The inspiration for this recipe came after visiting a Slovenian vegan restaurant Kucha which now sadly doesn’t exist anymore. When trying their amazing chocolate banana bread I had to recreate it at home. Many people that tried this banana bread said it was one of the best sweets they’ve ever eaten.
I make my banana bread with gluten free oats, I sweeten it with medjool dates and my secret ingredient for making the best banana bread is cashew butter. The inside is full of chocolate and banana pieces and the topping has even more banana so that every bite is as mouth-watering as possible. I use chocolate from Lindt, in my view the best widely available chocolate maker.
More delicious bananas recipes:
- Biscoff Caramelised Banana Overnight Oats
- Breakfast Banana Split
- Peanut Butter Caramelised Banana Porridge
- Açaí Bowl
Vegan Chocolate Banana Bread (GF)
If you want to make an impression on your guests then serve this amazingly delicious chocolate banana bread. It's vegan, gluten free, sweetened with medjool dates and has a secret ingredient that makes the taste so special. There's plenty of banana and chocolate pieces in there so that every bite is as mouth-watering as possible.
Ingredients
- 240 g gluten free oats ground into flour
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp vanilla powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp ground flax seeds
- 2 1/2 tbsp water
- 10 medjool dates pitted
- 6 (680g) riped bananas divided
- 50 ml (3 tbsp + 1 tsp) coconut oil melted (plus more for greasing the baking dish)
- 100 g cashew butter
- 45 ml (3 tbsp) unsweetened plant based milk I used soy milk
- 100 g Lindt 70% chocolate chopped
Instructions
- Grind oats into flour in a blender. Transfer it into a large bowl.
- Add baking powder, vanilla and salt. Mix everything together.
- Prepare a vegan egg by mixing ground flax seeds with 2 1/2 tbsp of water. Leave it to stand for approximately 5 min.
- Pit all medjool dates, put them in a small bowl and pour boiling water over them. Leave them to soak for 10 min.
- Mash 3 bananas (360g) well with a fork so that they become creamy and soft. Put them into a large bowl.
- Mash softened medjool dates (discarding the water where they were soaking) with a fork. Add them to the bowl with bananas. Mix together.
- Add also flax egg to the bananas and medjool dates mixture. Mix together.
- Melt coconut oil and cashew butter over low heat and add them to the bowl with bananas and medjool dates. Mix together.
- Add also plant based milk to the wet ingredients. Mix together well.
- Chop the chocolate into small pieces and chop 2 bananas (240g) into chunks.
- Heat the oven to 180 °C.
- Pour the dry mixture over the wet one. Mix together so that there are no dry spots left but don't over mix it.
- Mix chocolate and banana pieces gently into the batter.
- Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan (I used 10 x 29 cm) and even out the surface on top.
- Cut the last banana in half lengthwise. Gently push it into the batter so that the cut side is looking up.
- Put the loaf into a preheated oven on the middle rack for 50-60 minutes. After 50 min of baking test with a knife if the bread is done. If the knife comes out clean from the center then you can take the bread out of the oven. If the center is still wet put the bread back in the oven for a couple of more minutes. If the top is getting too brown, cover it with aluminium foil.
- Leave the bread to cool on the cooling rack for 20 min before turning the baking dish carefully around and take the bread out.
- Then leave the bread on the cooling rack for at least an hour before cutting into it.
Notes
*Perhaps it seems like a lot of baking powder to use in the recipe but it works because oat flour needs more baking powder to set properly.
*I suggest you use a light coloured baking dish because a dark baking dish will cause the banana bread to brown too quickly. If you use a dark baking dish consider baking at 165 °C.
*Make sure to use medjool dates that are already soft as they will be easier to mash.
*Make sure to use bananas that are very ripe because they bring a much better taste and sugar level to the banana bread than less ripened bananas.
*When measuring bananas use the exact measurements in grams to ensure you’ll have the correct amount of moisture in your batter. This way your banana bread won’t sink because of too much moisture or be too dry.
*Don’t forget to stir your cashew butter before using so that the oil on top incorporates into the solids and that cashew butter becomes smooth. I used roasted cashew butter from Nutural World.
*If your coconut oil is already liquid, put it over low heat with cashew butter anyway. Cashew butter can’t melt on its own as it does if you mix it with coconut oil.
*The banana for the top is optional. It will cause the bread to sink a little bit under the weight of the banana. I use it because I like the look of it and also because of the caramelised taste it brings to the overall bite. If you decide to use it choose a smaller size banana.
*Don’t leave the mixture stand for too long after the dry and wet ingredients are mixed together.
*If your oven needs a longer time to really reach the required temperature (I have a new oven that I need to keep at 180 degrees for about 10 minutes before it’s really hot enough), make sure to start preheating it earlier so that the batter won’t stand too long on the counter before baking.
*Do not open the door of the oven before 50 min of baking because it will cause the banana bread to sink.
*Don’t take the banana bread out of the baking dish immediately after baking. That may cause the banana bread to collapse.
*Recipe is constructed with tips from the vegan version of the recipe from Broke and Cooking and with tips from The Bake School on how to make banana bread properly.
Nutrition
Serving: 1servingCalories: 392kcalCarbohydrates: 59gProtein: 8gFat: 17gSaturated Fat: 8gSodium: 285mgFiber: 8gSugar: 25g
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