Rich, gooey vegan chocolate banana bread is a decadent but healthy treat, any time of day! This amazing banana bread is made with just 5 ingredients, and it’s gluten free and totally banana sweetened.
Happy Monday, friends! How are things? As of 3pm today it’s officially summer for me. Today the teachers have a professional development session for curriculum that I’m actually really eager to attend, but after that I’m officially on summer break!
I’m super happy and grateful to have the opportunity to slow life down a bit, focus a lot on the blog, get more settled in at our house, and enjoy the beautiful weather. Summer is when my soul is most at peace and happy – I just can’t get enough of the sunshine!
I can’t think of any better way to celebrate a special occasion than with some vegan chocolate banana bread.
Ingredients for vegan chocolate banana bread
- Rolled oats: you’ll blend the oats to flour consistency, which will hold the banana bread together. Because it’s the only grain in the recipe, the oat flour will give the bread quite a dense, rich texture – it’s not light like a cake, but hearty and satisfying.
- Cocoa powder: cocoa gives the banana bread rich chocolate flavor.
- Ground flaxseed: you’ll make flax eggs by putting the ground flax in a bowl with water in the fridge for 20 minutes, until it gels up a bit. This helps hold the banana bread together and provides some great nutrition, too.
- Bananas: as always with banana baked goods, make sure your bananas are super ripe and spotty. They’re the only sweetener in this recipe, so they need to be really ripe for optimal banana flavor and sweetness.
- Nondairy milk: a bit of milk brings the batter together. I use unsweetened almond milk for neutral flavor, but any nondairy milk should work.
Tips for making vegan chocolate banana bread
- Measure the rolled oats before blending into flour. I always list the amount of oats used BEFORE they’re blended for flour. So in this case, you’ll measure out 2 cups of whole, rolled oats, then put those 2 cups into your blender to make flour.
- Make sure to use a nonstick or parchment-lined pan. Use a nonstick or parchment-lined pan so that the bread doesn’t stick after baking.
- Let it cool completely. Let the banana bread cool for at least 20 minutes before flipping it out of the pan, then let it sit and cool completely before slicing. It is pretty soft and gooey as is, but will firm up during the cooling process, and if you slice it too early, it may be a gooey mess.
- Add some fun toppings. This banana bread is great on its own, but even better with whatever toppings you love! My favorites are almond butter, vegan chocolate chips, or vegan yogurt.
This vegan chocolate banana bread is so ooey, gooey, rich and chocolatey. The banana in this bread definitely comes, but the bread is still full of chocolate flavor. How many slices of this is too many in one sitting? Asking for a friend.
Xo,
Sara
Vegan Chocolate Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups rolled oats, blended into flour
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 2 flax eggs – 2 tbsp ground flaxseed in a bowl with 6 tbsp water, set in the fridge for 15 minutes prior to mixing into batter
- 2 cups ripe banana, mashed – I used 3 very large bananas
- 1 cup nondairy milk – I used unsweetened almond milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl, combine the oat flour and cocoa powder.
- Add the flax eggs, bananas, and almond milk and stir until thoroughly combined.
- Pour the batter into a sprayed or nonstick loaf pan, and bake 40 minutes.
- Allow the banana bread to cool in the pan for at least 30 minutes before turning it out to cool completely before slicing.
I can relate to that brain conversation sooooo much! Sometimes the inspiration is there and you know exactly what you want to make and sometimes it just isn’t. And without the inspiration my flop rate is like 10x higher so better to just wait for the perfect chocolatey idea to strike like this beautiful bread! I love that you went extra dark with it and no sweeteners–I like my chocolatey things on the bitter side. And those chunks! Why don’t I always put chunks in my banana bread again? Acceptable number of slices to eat at once…well how many slices does a loaf make? Yep that sounds about right 😀
Haha Natalie I’m going to be honest, the chunks were totally a happy accident! I cut a slice and was like um WHAT but obviously I didn’t complain 🙂 I think the super dark chocolate just helped them stand out! PS thanks for validating the slice number…sounds about right to me, too 🙂
This looks amazing, thanks for sharing! I’ve been trying to get more into baking at home rather than raiding the vegan donut section at Whole Foods haha! PS – just messaged you on Pinterest!
Beauty & Colour | Vegan Lifestyle Blog
Hi, Caitlin – as good as I’m sure those doughnuts are, this is a great place to start in terms of easy, home baking! 🙂