This Healthier Vegan Chocolate Banana Bread is made with whole-grain flour & contains no added butter or oil but it 100% tastes amazing! It’s super-moist, slightly fudgy & really indulgent!
Spotty bananas at the ready…. And if you don’t have spotty bananas then you’re going to have to wait a few days before trying this very indulgent, but healthier, Vegan Chocolate Banana Bread.
It’s well worth waiting for though! I should know. I’ve made it about 6 times in the last couple of weeks.
It’s an adaptation of my Healthy Vegan Banana Bread and my Best Vegan Banana Bread recipes. It gets a hefty dose of chocolate added. I didn’t think it could be improved upon, but well … the moral of the story is that chocolate makes everything better. Even if it was pretty damn good to begin with.
And if you don’t have a loaf tin, never fear, because you can make my Healthy Chocolate Banana Muffins version of this recipe instead.
How to make Vegan Chocolate Banana Bread
This bread is really easy to make and it can be done all in one bowl.
First up you need to puree a few bananas. They need to be really smooth. I like to throw mine in my Kitchen Aid (<<< affiliate link) and use the flat beater to beat them to a pulp. Then I add the rest of the wet ingredients to the bowl too and carry on beating until it’s all nice and smooth and fluffy, before adding the dry ingredients and mixing them in by hand. The worst thing you can do when making a cake/muffins is to over-beat. It really affects the final result and not in a good way. 
If you don’t have a stand mixer you can use a hand mixer, or you can pop the bananas in a blender or a food processor. You can even just do it the old fashioned way with a fork but you will need to mash them really, really well.
Once the batter is made, stir in some chocolate chips and pour it into a loaf tin. I like to line mine with a strip of parchment paper down the middle so that it’s really easy to lift the bread out and onto a cooling rack when it’s done and I can’t say enough good things about USA Pan Loaf Pans (<<< affiliate link).
I bake all of my bread and quick breads in my USA Pan pans. They conduct heat brilliantly and nothing ever sticks.
This is why I am loving this Vegan Chocolate Banana Bread:
- um…it has chocolate in it…..
- it’s soft, fudgy & delicious
- it’s got NO added oil or butter in it
- it stays moist for days and days and days
- double up and stash one away for another day because it freezes perfectly
- it’s a great way to get some healthy whole grains and fruit in your kiddos!
This Vegan Chocolate Banana Bread can be breakfast, snack or dessert. It’s kind of healthy enough for breakfast and starting a day with chocolate is always a good idea. It’s also rich and fudgy enough to be dessert. I might have even eaten it for breakfast and dessert all in one day on more than one occasion ……. Busted!
You cannot imagine just how good this loaf of chocolatey goodness smells when it is baking. That chocolate and those bananas mingling in the air is perfection.
I had thoughts of frosting this bread, but in all honesty it doesn’t need it. It’s perfectly moist, slight fudgy and sweet enough as it is. Why mess with something so good?
All it does need is you, a comfy sofa to put your feet up on and a giant mug of steaming tea or coffee, while you enjoy it warm from the oven….Why even bother trying not to succumb to temptation? Just do it!
If you love banana bread flavors, why not try my Vegan Banana Pancakes too?
As with all of my baking recipes where precision is key to excellent results, I highly recommend using a kitchen scale to measure your ingredients, rather than using cup measurements. This one is cheap (under $10) and works brilliantly:
It has a tare function which is really handy. This means you can place any bowl on the scale and reset to zero so it doesn’t include the weight in it’s calculation, plus you can reset to zero when adding multiple ingredients to the same bowl which saves on washing up. If you do a lot of baking and want optimum results a scale really is a great investment.
Vegan Chocolate Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 3 medium bananas* , very ripe & spotty
- 6 tablespoons cashew butter or sunflower seed butter ** (almond butter or peanut butter can also be used but their flavour will come through a little).
- ¼ cup maple syrup ***
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 115g / ½ packed cup sugar
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 210g / 1¾ cup spelt flour ****
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- 50g / ½ cup cocoa power
- 85g / ½ cup chocolate chips *****, plus a handful extra for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease and line a 1lb loaf pan with a strip of parchment paper down the middle with some extra overhanging at the end to act as handles for lifting the cooked cake out.
- Puree the bananas until completely smooth. You can do this in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, or in a blender or food processor. You can also do it by hand with a fork but make sure they are really smooth.
- Add the nut/sunflower seed butter, maple syrup, vanilla extract, sugar and salt to the bananas and beat until smooth and light and fluffy.
- Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and cocoa powder and mix gently BY HAND (not in the stand mixer, food processor or blender) until everything is just combined. Do not over mix because it will affect the texture and rise.
- Finally add the chocolate chips and stir just enough to distribute evenly.
- Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan, even out the top and sprinkle with the extra handful of chocolate chips.
- Bake for around 45 - 50 minutes until the loaf is coming away from the sides of the pan and is firm with a bit of bounce when you poke the centre of it. This bread is best when very slightly under-cooked as it has maximum fudginess then. If you insert a toothpick, instead of it coming out clean like with most cakes, you want a bit of thick, sticky, chocolatey batter clinging to it. If when you put it in it feels liquidy put it back in the oven for another 5 minutes then check again.
- Remove from the tin immediately once done using the parchment paper as handles and place on a cooling rack. Be sure to remove the strip of paper from it's bottom by gently turning it on its side and peeling it away.
Notes
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Estimated nutrition per serving:
Long time vegan, creator of A Virtual Vegan & author of the book 
