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 so many times over the past couple of weeks.
It’s a hybrid adaptation of my Healthy Vegan Banana Bread and Best Vegan Banana Bread recipes and gets a hefty dose of chocolate added.
I didn’t think either of those recipes 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
FOR INGREDIENTS & FULL INSTRUCTIONS PLEASE SEE THE RECIPE CARD AT THE END OF THIS POST
This bread/cake is really easy to make and it can be mixed up all in one bowl.
Here’s how it’s done:
STEP 1: Puree the bananas. I beat mine up in my Kitchen Aid with the flat beater but a fork will do just fine.
STEP 2: Add the rest of the wet ingredients and beat ’til smooth.
STEP 3: Add the dry ingredients and fold in gently. The worst thing you can do when making a cake/muffins is to over-beat the batter once the flour is added. It really affects the final result and not in a good way.
STEP 4: Add the chocolate chips, spoon into a pan and bake.
I can’t say enough good things about USA Pan Loaf Pans. I bake all of my bread and quick breads in my USA Pan pans. They conduct heat brilliantly and nothing ever sticks.
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.
Success Tips
- Use a scale to weigh the ingredients. Precision is key to excellent results when baking and cup measurements are not accurate enough for optimum and consistent results. This kitchen scale is cheap and works brilliantly.
- Use really ripe spotty bananas
- Don’t over-mix the batter.
- Be sure you don’t over-bake this banana bread. It’s beauty is the fudginess and we don’t want to lose it! It’s better to very slightly under-bake it.
- Add some extra chocolate chips to the top before baking to make it look extra pretty (or as an excuse to eat more chocolate).
This is why I am loving this Vegan Chocolate Banana Bread:
- um…it has chocolate in it…..
- it’s soft, fudgy & delicious
- it contains NO added oil or butter
- 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. try warming a slice gently and topping with a dollop of dairy-free vanilla ice cream!
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!
Hungry for more?
If you are loving the sweet banana vibe then you might also enjoy my:
Vegan Banana Pancakes
Vegan Banana Scones
Easy Banana Peanut Butter Ice Cream Bars
And if you love this recipe, please do check out my cookbook, and subscribe to my email list for a fabulous FREE eCookbook featuring my top 10 recipes. Being on the list means you will be first to see my new recipes and you’ll be kept in the loop on all things new and exciting too!
Vegan Chocolate Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 3 medium bananas* , very ripe & spotty
- 6 tablespoons natural nut or seed butter ** peanut butter, almond butter, sun butter or cashew butter are all fine.
- ¼ cup maple syrup ***
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 115g / ½ packed cup sugar
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 210g / 1¾ cup spelt flour **** or all purpose flour (plain flour in the UK), wholewheat or a good all purpose gluten free flour blend.
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda , bicarbonate of soda in the UK
- 50g / ½ cup cocoa power
- 85g / ½ cup dairy-free chocolate chips *****, plus a handful extra for sprinkling ( or chop a bar of chocolate into small chunky pieces instead).
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease and line a 9 x 5 inch 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 smooth. You can do this by hand with a fork or in a mixer.
- Add the nut/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 until everything is just combined. Do not over mix because it will affect the texture and rise.
- Then 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 an 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 fudgy cake clinging to it. If 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
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 its 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.Estimated nutrition per serving:
Long time vegan, creator of A Virtual Vegan & author of the book 
Patricia says
What size of a loaf pan did you use?
A Virtual Vegan says
9 x 5 inch.
Janine Miller says
Didn’t follow the recipe completely, BUT still turned out fantastic 💓
Colleen N says
I’ve been wanting to make this for weeks and finally had time to do it today. Well, it was definitely worth the wait. I made a gluten-free version (using Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Baking Flour) and it was excellent. Usually, GF baked goods fall just after coming out of the oven, but this was maintained a nice height. My husband, not typically a banana bread fan, ate multiple pieces and says he’ll be asking me to make it again. It’s a winner – thanks, Mel!
A Virtual Vegan says
Yay! Glad to know it worked out well with the GF flour. Thanks for stopping by to leave a review Colleen!
Mia says
Hi mine was super dry – it was only in the oven for 44 minutes
Not sure what has gone wrong
It it pretty unedible now on day 2 even with heating it up
Any advice
A Virtual Vegan says
I’ve never had this recipe turn out dry even when I’ve accidentally over-baked it. It’s got so much moisture from the bananas and nut butter. It’s hard to give advice without knowing your process. Did you sub any ingredients? That’s almost always the reason thing don’t go as planned. Did you weigh the flour? Is your oven running too hot? Did you use nut butter with load of additives in it instead of a natural one? Just some suggestions. It’s impossible to say for sure without knowing exactly what you did and what ingredients you used.
Mapusa says
Can I use agave syrup instead of maple?
A Virtual Vegan says
I haven’t tried it. I think it should technically work ok, but maple syrup has a much better flavour.
Mapusa says
Just an update, in case anyone had the same question as me, I tried it with agave nectar, and it tasted great.
The only question I have is that my batter wasn’t like a cake batter, it was much thicker and gloopier. Is that normal? If not, how do you fix it? Thanks! Xx
A Virtual Vegan says
The cake batter is a thick one because of the nut butter. That’s how it should be and what makes it so fudgy.
M says
Loved this cake bread. Again and again.
Patricia says
OMG!! The absolute BEST Banana (Chocolate) Bread I have ever had, hands down! Feel so good knowing that it turns out this amazing without eggs/milk/white sugar/white flour/oil. Totally agree with Cathy Buchman above – so moist and fudgy. This proves every dairy eatin’, meat eatin’ lover SOOOO wrong. Love eating Vegan. Feels so good eating this way.
Thanks so much for the recipe. Can’t wait to try a whole bunch more of your recipes.
A Virtual Vegan says
Thank you so much! I’m thrilled you enjoyed it so much. Thanks too for stopping by to leave feedback. It’s much appreciated!
Debbie says
Do you use vegan white sugar or brown sugar? Can something else be used in place of the sugar?
A Virtual Vegan says
Any sugar is fine in this recipe which is why it’s not specified. Just use whatever you have. White, brown, coconut etc. Sugar isn’t just for sweetness, it provides structure in cake/muffins etc so I wouldn’t recommend omitting it. As for using something else, I assume you mean sweeteners of some kind? I don’t bake with them and this recipe has not been tested with them so I don’t know what results would be like. Hope that help!
Patricia says
Coconut sugar is wonderful. I was a super white sugar addict (serious one) until I started eating Vegan Sept/2019.
I absolutely love Coconut sugar for baking, coffee and anything else that requires sugar.
Mandy says
oh my goodness – this is a little piece of yummy heaven! I made this today to take to a family birthday gathering – the compliments were flying around the room! Honestly, this was so tasty, a little fudgy and oh so chocolate. Mixed opinions as to who could/could not taste the banana in it. Definitely a hit all round and a recipe to keep!
Thank you so much!
A Virtual Vegan says
That’s so good to hear Mandy. I’m glad everyone enjoyed it!
Cathy Buchman says
I love this vegan chocolate banana recipe made without oil /butter! It was so moist & fudgy. Absolutely delicious!
Thank You!!!
JOSIE says
I’ve had this tagged for over a year & finally got round to making it. It was well worth the wait – delish! For the record I only used 50g of sugar.
Melanie McDonald says
I’m really pleased you enjoyed it Josie!
Tamara says
You mention weighing the flour which makes perfect sense, but what about the bananas? How much in weight should I aim for with 3 ‘medium’ bananas. Bananas tend to vary in size a bit, so want to get it right. I guess some of the people reporting a slightly dry cake might have used smaller bananas?
Thanks.
Melanie McDonald says
What I would call a medium banana is one that is 7 to 8 inches long. It’s such a moist cake that a slight variation in the quantity doesn’t make a noticeable difference.
Eleni says
Really good banana bread – I’ve made the original recipe above and it was perfect! Family loved it!
Then I’ve made it again as a last minute treat to take to a friend. Used peanut butter with coconut oil instead of cashew butter and I didn’t think it was as good. But I’m not a peanut butter lover. So it may work for some.
Kelsang Lamshe says
I just tried this tonight but the top cracked wrote badly and it’s very crumbly to cut. I used a silicon loaf tin and it spread out sideways quite a lot, could this have caused it? It tastes good though.
A Virtual Vegan says
I don’t advise using silicone bakeware. It will be why you haven’t had such a good result. It doesn’t have enough structure to support cake-y recipes as they rise, hence the reason it spread out sideways and probably also why it cracked. Silicone also doesn’t conduct heat like a metal pan does and they don’t bake as evenly or as well. I’ve tried silicone pans myself and ended up giving them to the thrift store. Use a metal loaf pan and you will be fine.
Dan says
Any substitute for the sugar in this recipe? Super keen to try it looks great, but trying to cut down on sugar….
A Virtual Vegan says
Sugar is important for the structure in cakes and muffins. If you remove it they likely won’t have the same texture or rise. You might get away with reducing it by a 1/3 though, although I can’t guarantee they will turn out quite so well. And I can’t recommend a substitute without testing it, as it would completely change the recipe and other things would need to be altered too.
Andrea Körn says
Hi Mel, I made this banana bread many times and I love it! I always use peanut butter because cashew butter is so expensive. Thank you so much for this recipe!!!
A Virtual Vegan says
I’m thrilled that you are enjoying the recipe Andrea. I think I need to do a peanut butter version for the blog one day soon!