Banana chia coconut bread

I will say upfront that I didn't expect to share this recipe. I made it on a whim, to use up bananas and some of my recent fig paste. Even by my standards it is very minimally sweetened. I hoped it would be suitable for Mini Bite and edible, but not necessarily exciting, for me. In the end, I loved the bread so much that I hastily scribbled down the recipe so I could post it here.

The star of this bread is not the banana or coconut, and in fact neither are a strong presence in the loaf. Instead, it is the chia seeds that make this wonderful, giving the loaf a fantastic texture and reminding me of poppy seed cakes. I will definitely be baking more chia loaded breads now!

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Cranberry and chocolate chip banana bread

On Sunday we went to a pot luck Christmas event, organised by one of the mother's I met through a local mother/baby group. Mr Bite and I are not the most sociable couple (I think it's safe to say we are both introverts!) but with moving to a new country and then a new town, I have tried to make an effort to build our social networks. Our school and university friends are back in Australia, as our are families, and I don't think it's healthy for us to be completely isolated. The pot luck event was enjoyable and a nice opportunity to socialise with other couples with babies.

I took along some hummus and vegetable sticks, as well as this cranberry and chocolate chip banana bread. I adapted it from a non-vegan cranberry banana bread, but opted to swap out the walnuts used in the original for more decadent chocolate chips. I really loved the bread and am pleased to share the recipe now.

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Vegan spelt banana bread with coconut sugar

I don't think you can really know an oven, or trust it, until you have used it to bake a cake. I have gone through a trial and error process with our new oven, as it has rather worn labels that aren't very easy to read. One on occasion, I thought I was grilling but had actually set the oven to 'defrost'. I didn't even know ovens could have a defrost setting. Basically, it just blows air around with no heat. I don't anticipate using the feature again!

Spelt banana bread with coconut sugar

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No bake, high raw banana bread bites - vegan and gluten free

These banana bread bites are a blatant rip off of my vegan brownie bites. Fortunately, I think it's acceptable to rip off your own recipes. Plus, when you're on to a good thing, why stop at one variation?

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Vegan banana bread cake

I know that banana bread isn't the most exciting product out there. It's been done many times before. It's even been done by me before.

Yawn.

The thing is, though, this banana bread is more like a cake.

A seriously delicious, almost fudgy cake. It uses non-dairy spread (or margarine or butter) instead of oil, creamed with brown sugar to give a fluffy start to the mixture. There are 3 bananas. Chia seeds add an extra punch to the batter. The resulting product is firmly in the 'dessert' category, but stands alone with no need for icing.

If you did want some topping, though, warm toffee syrup would go down rather well. It's that kind of bread cake.

I made this some time ago and had a mini panic when I lost the scrap of people on which I'd scrawled the recipe. Even though it's only banana bread, I didn't want to lose it. I wanted to be able to recreate it exactly, even though I struggle to follow recipes exactly (thus why this banana bread isn't the same as my last banana bread!). Happily, I found the scrap of paper, and I hereby declare this my new banana bread recipe.

Banana bread cake

Adapted from my previous banana bread

Vegan

Makes 1 loaf cake

Print recipe

Ingredients

1/4 cup non-dairy spread (or margarine or butter)

3/4 cup brown sugar

3 medium ripe bananas, roughly mashed

1/4 cup non-dairy milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp chia seeds

1 1/2 cups plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

Method

Preheat your oven to 180'C and prepare a loaf tin.

Beat the non-dairy spread and brown sugar on medium speed until fluffy, about 2 minutes.

Add the mashed bananas, milk, vanilla and chia seeds, and mix to combine.

Add in the remaining dry ingredients and mix well to combine. 

Bake for ~40 minutes, until golden.

If I can save our over-ripe bananas from frozen banana soft serve (questionable), we will definitely have more of this appearing in our house before too long.

What's your view on banana bread? Or are there other 'stand by' baking recipes in your house?

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The novelty of banana bread

When I think of banana bread, I don't really think exciting, or novel, or my first choice when offered a baked product.

Banana bread (and muffins) falls into the category, in my mind, of a good stand-by product. A fairly safe option, with minimal fuss and a fairly short ingredient list, that most people will probably eat. Banana products even carry 'healthy' connotations, even though many banana breads are equivalent in sugar and fat content to chocolate cake.

All in all, I like banana bread but I don't generally crave it or make it. Banana and pineapple, banana and chocolate, and banana and peanut butter are exciting combinations, but banana alone is just...well, not.

That all changed when bananas became a rare and over-priced, cyclone depleted, commodity.

When they were suddenly unavailable, I started craving them at odd moments - typically in the middle of a work day, when there was nothing I could do about said craving even if I was prepared to pay $2 plus for one piece of fruit.

Now that the banana prices are back in the acceptable range, and bananas are starting to seem more of a normal item and less of a luxury one, I thought I would celebrate by making banana bread. We had a slightly too ripe banana, I had an untried recipe (for the best banana bread, no less) in The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes, and the time seemed right.

Banana bread

Lightly adapted from The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes (Kris Holechek)

Makes 1 loaf / 10 generous slices
Print recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 bananas (I used 1 medium and 1 large)
• 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp non-dairy milk (I used soy)
• Optional: brown sugar, extra, to sprinkle on top (I didn't actually do this, but you could if you wanted extra sweetness)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 180'C and prepare a loaf tin.

2. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

3. In a large bowl, mash the bananas and then add the oil, brown sugar, and milk. Stir to combine.

4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix to combine.

5. Bake for 35 - 40 minutes (mine took 38 minutes), until the bread is golden and a toothpick comes out clean.

This sits right in the middle of 'cake' and 'bread', which is just where I like my banana bread. Pairing with tea or coffee is highly recommended :)

What are your thoughts on banana bread? Do you have a favourite version or recipe?

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