Delicious Vegan Banana Bread
In culinary school, we made a banana bread that was, without exaggeration, the best one I had ever had. Now, call me basic, but I used to love the Costco banana nut bread. It was just perfectly tender, with the right amount of walnuts and just so addictive. So when we made one in school and it came out almost exactly like that one (without all the additives), let’s just say I was VERY excited. Since, I have been on a mission to make a delicious vegan banana bread that could be indistinguishable from that one.
Well, it took a fair bit of time. The reason being that they would always come out so dense! And if they weren’t dense they were too dry. So I would go months without testing a banana bread, because it would get annoying to be quite honest. All this until I discovered the magical ingredient that is chickpea flour.
What makes this vegan banana bread great
Now don’t click away just because this recipe calls for an “uncommon” ingredient! Hear me out. It really is amazing. As a matter of fact, it’s one of the most versatile vegan egg replacers I’ve found. I’ve made non-vegan recipes simply by replacing the eggs with it and they come out the same! You’ll probably see it often on the blog. It’s become a staple in my vegan pantry. Though don’t get me wrong, the stuff tastes gross in it’s raw form. So I wouldn’t recommend tasting a batter made with it. Trust me. But once it’s baked, it’s virtually undetectable.
So after all that testing, I finally landed on something similar. Although I haven’t tasted the Costco one in years so I can’t compare, this one satisfies that craving I get every once in a while. It’s obviously not as fluffy, but the flavour is there. If you want it even fluffier, you can bake the batter in mini loaf pans or even as muffins. They will have a better rise since there’s not as much weight on the structure. Either way you’ll have delicious vegan banana bread.
If you make this recipe please let me know in the comments! All feedback is very much appreciated and I would love to hear from you! You can also tag me on instagram @the.quaint.kitchen or use the hashtag #thequaintkitchen to share your creations!
Delicious Vegan Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 225 g very ripe bananas, mashed
- 85 g walnuts, roughly chopped
- 240 g all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1½ tsp cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 90 g neutral oil, (grapeseed, canola, vegetable…)
- 220 g granulated white sugar, make sure it’s vegan
- 40 g chickpea flour
- 135 g water
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- turbinado sugar or any coarse sugar, optional
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 170°C or 340°F and line a 9×5 loaf tin with parchment paper. Leave some overhang to make it easier to pull out of the tin once it’s baked.
- Mash the bananas on a flat plate with a fork and set aside.
- Give the walnuts a rough chop and set aside as well.
- Whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
- Then whisk together the oil, sugar, chickpea flour, water and vanilla extract until no lumps of chickpea flour remain. Add the mashed bananas and finish whisking.
- Add the flour mixture and when it’s almost all incorporated, fold in the walnuts. Be careful not to overmix. It may cause you to have a gummy banana bread.
- Pour the batter into the loaf tin and sprinkle the top with turbinado/coarse sugar.
- Bake for 60 to 80 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let it cool around 10 minutes in the tin before removing and placing on a wire rack.
Notes
- *Disclaimer: I have a tiny not-so-great oven, so your bake time may vary from mine.
- I strongly suggest making recipes by weight, if you make them by cups I can’t guarantee that you’ll get the same results.
- You can replace the walnuts with any nuts you prefer or even chocolate chips. If you don’t want anything in the bread you can easily omit them.
- The sprinkle of coarse sugar is optional but I like the crunchy top it gives the loaf.
- If you see that the top is browning too fast, you can cover it loosely with aluminium foil and continue baking.