My Boyfriend's Vegan Banana Bread

My first blog post on my new website! I managed to transfer the posts from my old blog to the new one thankfully, but I am looking forward to creating more new ones now. Kicking it off with this awesome vegan banana bread. This banana bread has a funny story behind it actually. My boyfriend's work accidentally ordered 30kg of bananas instead of just 30 bananas, so everyone took loads home and he ended up using them in a banana bread. He made it vegan so all his colleagues could enjoy it at work.

I have probably made this recipe 20 times now. It is my go-to banana bread recipe, because it is as easy as just combining the ingredients. The pictures show two different batches that I have baked - one has one large banana on top cut lengthways, and the other has smaller slices. You can choose whichever style you prefer.

We ended up tweaking the recipe a little bit from how my boyfriend originally made it for work, and we feel this one is a real crowdpleaser. It is really quite healthy compared to a lot of other banana breads, but it does not compromise on taste at all. You could "healtify" it even further by swapping the flour for oat flour if you wish (don't forget to add some baking powder in that case). This banana bread is super moist, but still light and airy thanks to the self-raising flour. We actually managed to eat the whole loaf in 2 days together, which is quite the accomplishment. This loaf comes together so quickly. There is ZERO faff in the recipe. So let's get to it.

Vegan Banana Bread

Ingredients

• 5 medium ripe bananas (the 5th one is for topping)

• 60 ml extra virgin olive oil (trust me)

• 60 ml almond milk (or other plant-based milk)

• 2 tsp vanilla extract

• 100 grams soft dark brown sugar (or light brown if you prefer)

• 250 grams self-raising flour

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 2 tsp ground cinnamon

• 1/2 tsp fine sea salt

• 50 grams chopped roasted pecans

• 50 grams chopped dark chocolate (70% cocoa mass)

• small sprinkle of caster sugar

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius and prepare a standard size loaf tin with parchment paper.

2. Mash up four bananas with a fork until liquid but still a bit chunky. Slice up the fifth banana diagonally so you get nice long slices.

3. Add the olive oil, almond milk, vanilla extract and brown sugar. Mix well until it becomes light and fluffy (you can do this by hand or with an electric mixer).

4. Add the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt and mix in until just incorporated. You can use a sieve as well if you want.

5. Gently fold in the pecans and chocolate using a spatula. Reserve a bit to go on top if you like.

6. Pour the batter into the loaf tin. Top with the sliced banana and leftover pecans and chocolate.

7. Sprinkle the sliced banana with a little bit of caster sugar.

8. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes. Then check on your cake by inserting a toothpick: if it comes out clean, the cake is done. If not, bake a further 5-10 minutes until done, perhaps with some aluminium foil on top to prevent further browning.

9. Let cool for 1 hour before slicing and serving.

And that's all! I hope you enjoy making this (but mostly eating it). Let me know on instagram when you do: @bakingstori

Lots of love,

Tori