The Ultimate Vegan Banana Bread

When it comes to quick breads, is anything better than a classic banana bread recipe? My mother in law shares half of her delicious banana bread every time she makes some, so we get treated pretty often. She shared favorite banana bread recipe with me years ago, but I’ve never made it as good as hers!

When I decided it needed a vegan spin, I headed to the kitchen, on a mission! And this Ultimate Vegan Banana Bread was the result. The key for me was switching to two mini loaf pans instead of one standard size loaf. And who doesn’t prefer two adorable mini loaves anyway? 🙂

Ingredients

It’s really quite an easy recipe. You don’t even need a fancy stand mixer or anything, just a mixing bowl will do! You’ll need to have your typical dry ingredients; all purpose flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

As for making it vegan, it was a matter of a couple simple swaps – flax egg instead of a chicken egg, almond milk instead of cow’s milk, and vegetable oil or coconut oil instead of melted butter. Of course, if you’re not vegan, feel free to just use an egg or whatever milk you have on hand!

You’ll also need bananas, of course, and white sugar, vanilla extract, and a little bit of shredded carrot. ‘Cause if you add carrots you can claim it’s a healthy banana bread recipe, right? Plus, I’m a fan of adding more veggies in anything you can! Really, you can’t tell they are in there at all. My hubby hates carrots, but he had to concede that this was a good recipe, after he tasted it.

Method

Preheat oven and prepare loaf pans. This recipe makes 2 mini sized loaves. For best results, I recommend mini loaf pans or a muffin tin. One large loaf doesn’t cook through all the way.

If you’ve looked at many vegan banana bread recipes out there, or many vegan baking recipes at all, you might know about flat eggs. It’s a simple mixture of ground flax and water that thickens as it sits, and after about five minutes, it’s ready to act as a binder in a recipe. Some bakers use a pinch of baking powder in their flax eggs to add a bit of a leavening agent, but I didn’t find that necessary here.

So your first step is to make your flag egg. In a small separate bowl or measuring cup, combine ground flax and water, stir, and set aside to thicken.

In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, set aside. I like to use a whisk here to break up any lumps, it’s easier than sifting but almost as effective.

Now in a large bowl, mash bananas well with a fork, potato masher, or pastry blender. Add in sugar, shredded carrot, milk, oil, flax egg, and vanilla. Mix well.

Add in flour mixture into the wet ingredients and stir gently until just combined. Don’t overmix, or the texture of the bread will be tough. Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for 15-25 minutes (less for muffins, longer for mini loaves.) They should come out dark brown, firm, and be able to pass the clean toothpick test.

Cool partially in pan, run a sharp knife around the edges to loosen, and turn out to finish cooling on a wire baking rack. Or enjoy warm.

Variations and Substitutions

For chocolate chip banana bread, add 1/2 cup chocolate chips.

For banana nut bread, swap sugar for brown sugar and add 1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts.

For whole wheat banana bread, swap half the flour for whole wheat flour. I haven’t done a whole wheat version, but I imagine it might be much too heavy.

For a gluten free banana bread, substitute a 1-1 gluten free flour blend, like Bob’s Red Mills Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour (not an affiliate like, just good stuff!)

You could also potentially use less sugar, but I wouldn’t cut it by a lot, but try 1/2 a cup instead of 3/4. And self-rising flour could work in place of the flour, salt, baking soda combo, but I haven’t tested it!

One last tip from my mother in law – don’t even bother if you don’t have extremely overripe bananas. Like really really brown, and way beyond when you think they would ever be useable! She actually saves brown bananas, peels them, seals them in a Tupperware container in the back of her fridge and lets them almost get fermented for *the best* results! I’m not usually that patient, but sometimes it’s worth it.

If you’re looking for any other vegan quick-breads, check out my Vegan Chocolate Zucchini Bread!

Ok, that’s enough sitting around! Go forth and make the banana bread!