Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

This vegan peanut butter chocolate chip banana bread is soft, gooey, and full of rich chocolate and peanut butter flavor! Made with just 6 healthy ingredients, gluten free, and banana sweetened.

And just like that, it’s the last week of August.

I feel like of all the seasons, summer is always going to be the one that seems to fly by before I’ve had a chance to get as tan as I want to or eat all the fresh, sweet cherries I can get my hands on. It’s also my favorite season as a hot weather girl, so maybe that has something to do with it.

BUT. I have to admit that the past couple years I have felt really, really ready for the fall when summer starts winding down. Your girl is ready for all things leggings, big sweatshirts, crunchy leaves, cinnamon spice, pumpkin, you know, all the oh so wonderfully basic things to love about fall.

The other thing I love about fall? FOOTBALL SEASON. As an Ohio State alumni (where did you guys go to school if you went?!), fall is a special time for game days on the weekends, and plenty of buckeye–themed treats!

Which brings me to this beauty, a banana bread that has all our favorite buckeye flavors. If you aren’t familiar, a buckeye is basically a sweet peanut butter ball dipped in chocolate. Last year I made these healthy/vegan 3 ingredient buckeyes and I’m still SO happy about that recipe. But today we’re making buckeyes in simple, one bowl, one pan, banana bread form. Sweet, rich, gooey, full of peanut buttery flavor and plenty of dark chocolate chips.

I am HERE FOR THIS.

Ingredients for vegan peanut butter chocolate chip 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.
• Banana: 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.
• 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.
• Peanut butter: peanut butter provides richness and healthy fats, but make sure to get unsweetened and oil-free. A lot of nut butters are full of junk you don’t need, so make sure the only ingredients are peanuts and maybe a bit of salt.
• Nondairy milk: a bit of milk brings the batter together. I use unsweetened almond milk for neutral flavor, but any nondairy milk should work.
• Vegan chocolate chips: I like the Lily’s stevia-sweetened chips, but use any vegan chocolate chips you like.

Tips for making vegan peanut butter chocolate chip 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.
• Let it cool completely. Let the banana bread cool for at least 30 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.

This vegan peanut butter chocolate chip banana bread is such a fun, special, indulgent version of banana bread. You’d never know it’s made with just a few healthy ingredients and banana sweetened. And I mean, putting bananas, peanut butter, and chocolate together in a soft, gooey bread…could never NOT be amazing.

Buckeye banana bread bliss. One thing I love more than alliterations? This banana bread.

Xo,

Sara