This is a wonderfully gingerbread-spiced chocolate chip banana bread, but it happens to be vegan. Even non-vegans will never know the difference.
Every week, when it is time to write down our grocery list, I forget to add an ingredient (or two). Last week, I forgot to add tortilla shells for our shrimp tacos, and I also didn’t realize that we were out of milk and eggs. I mean come on, milk and eggs are two of my baking staples. How on earth did I forget to add those to the list?
Even though my memory has been slightly failing me, I have tried to be more creative in my baking so that I can rely on other ingredients I have around the house. I needed to bake something for breakfast, and I was craving some type of quick bread. However, without eggs or plain Greek yogurt around the house, I thought that would prove to be difficult.
I was wrong.
I found this vegan chocolate chip banana bread on the New York Times website and it sounded delightful. The dry ingredients listed several spices that are usually found in gingerbread – cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. And instead of eggs and milk, the recipe called for coconut milk and oil. I did make some healthier substitutions and used unsweetened applesauce for the oil and whole wheat flour instead of the all-purpose flour. And you know what? I’m glad I did. The bread was so soft and flavorful, and I forgot that there was no milk or eggs.
Hmm, so maybe it wasn’t a bad thing that I forgot to add ingredients to my grocery list. If I had remembered them, I would not have found this recipe!
Husband’s rating: 3.5 out of 5
Addie’s rating: 4 out of 5
My rating: 4 out of 5
Vegan chocolate chip banana bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups white whole wheat flour can substitute with all-purpose
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar packed
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 cup (about 2 large) overripe bananas mashed
- 1 cup coconut milk
- ½ cup unsweetened applesauce
- 2 teaspoons white or apple cider vinegar
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 and ½ cups chocolate chips
- coarse sugar for sprinkling optional
Instructions
- Preheat your oven 350°F. Generously grease or line a standard 9"x5" baking pan and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger.
- In a separate large bowl, mix together the bananas, coconut milk, applesauce, vinegar and vanilla. Transfer this to the large bowl with the dry ingredients. Gently fold the ingredients together until a few dry streaks remain. Fold in the chocolate chips and mix until no dry streaks remain. Do not over mix.
- Transfer the batter to your prepared baking pan. Top with additional chocolate chips and coarse sugar if desired.
- Bake in your preheated oven for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (melted chocolate chips are OK - you just don't want wet batter).
- Allow the bread to cool before slicing and serving.