This Vegan Chocolate Banana Bread is 100% amazing. It's easy to make in one bowl, rich, chocolatey, fudgy, and super indulgent!
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Spotty bananas at the ready because we're making rich, fudgy, and delicious Vegan Chocolate Banana Bread!
It can be breakfast (starting the day with chocolate is always a good idea!), a snack, or a dessert. Enjoy it as it is or spread it with vegan butter, nut butter, tahini, or date caramel.
It's also rich and fudgy enough to be dessert. Try warming a slice gently and topping it with caramelized bananas and a dollop of dairy-free vanilla ice cream!
Love banana bread? Be sure to try my Tahini Banana Bread, Spelt Banana Bread, Choc Nut Banana Bread, and Chocolate Coconut Banana Bread too!
Mel x
Ingredients
Here is what you need at a glance, along with some important ingredient notes & substitution ideas:
- Overripe bananas - The spottier the better!
- Flour - All-purpose, spelt, wholewheat, or gluten-free all-purpose are all fine to use.
- Maple syrup - For extra fudginess. You can use sugar instead but it will change the texture of the cake and it won't be as moist or fudgy.
- Nut/seed butter or oil - I prefer making this with nut butter as the fat because it adds more flavour but any liquid oil is fine to use instead.
- Baking powder and baking soda - When you don’t use eggs you need to make up for the leavening they would otherwise provide by adding both of these. The baking soda reacts with an acid (in this case cocoa) and creates extra lift to make up for the no-egg situation.
You'll also need a loaf pan to cook it in. No loaf pan? Make my Vegan Chocolate Banana Muffins instead.
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 than it is to go over.
- Add some extra chocolate chips to the top before baking to make it look extra pretty (or as an excuse to eat more chocolate).
Variations
I recommend following the basic recipe as closely as possible for best results, but it is perfectly ok to make it your own by adding some mix-ins. How about:
- Chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans would be great).
- Dried fruit (tart cherries would be lovely! )
- Shredded coconut
- Chopped dates for extra fudginess
Recipe FAQs
If none of your bananas are super ripe and spotty, simply place 3 of them on a baking tray with their skins still intact (i.e. not peeled) and bake them at 350°F (175°C) for 8 minutes. Remove them from the oven. They will be black. Allow them to cool before scraping the mushy banana out and going ahead with the recipe.
Recipe
Vegan Chocolate Banana Bread
Author:WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
Ingredients
- 3 medium 7 - 8 inch long ripe & spotty bananas , (weighing approx 375 grams or 13 oz in total when peeled)
- 6 tablespoons natural nut/seed butter or oil of choice
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ packed cup (115 grams) sugar , any type (white, cane, coconut, brown)
- ¾ teaspoon fine salt
- 1¾ cup (215 grams) flour , spelt, all-purpose flour (plain flour in the UK), wholewheat or gluten-free all-purpose flour blend.
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda , (bicarbonate of soda in the UK)
- ½ cup (50 grams) cocoa powder
- ½ cup (85 grams) dairy-free chocolate chips plus a few more for sprinkling on top
RECOMMENDED EQUIPMENT
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease and line a 9 x 5 or 8.5 x 4.5 inch loaf pan with a strip of parchment paper down the middle with some extra overhanging at each 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 or oil, 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
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Tosh says
Made this yesterday Mel, needed to use some overripe bananas up. Absolute winner. Followed the recipe and used smooth peanut butter. The batter seemed quite firm so I watched the video to capture the batter consistency. I added a couple of spoonfuls (table) of sunflower oil to mirror the batter consistency. Brilliant taste and fudgy to boot. Will definitely do it again. Thank you 💕
Carolyn says
Hi Mel, I just made this now and it turned out beautifully. I accidentally forgot the sugar which I was going to put dark brown sugar but I love it as it is, not overly sweet.
Thank you very much.
Melanie McDonald says
So glad you enjoyed it, Carolyn!
Joanie Lewis says
Mel - This is a delicious recipe. I made the recipe into muffins and used Eikorn wheat. Perfect and very fudgy.