bananas Archives - Sweet Potato Bites

I’ve made a lot of banana baked goods in my time. I’ve made vegan almond banana bread, banana spelt muffins, baked chocolate banana doughnuts and most recently grain-free peanut butter banana bars. But my latest banana creation is so good that the Englishman declared it was the best banana bread ever.

I really love baking with spelt, and I think the spelt flour contributed to the success of this banana bread. Combine that with a touch of peanut butter, some olive oil, honey, pistachios and chocolate chips, and you have a winning combination. The best part of this bread is that it’s egg-free so you can whip it up in a flash, and if you want to make it vegan, just swap the honey for maple syrup and use dairy-free chocolate chips. So easy.

I’ve been making this bread almost weekly, and the Englishman takes it to work for mid-afternoon snack. I also happen to know based on personal experience that this bread is excellent with some ice cream (a la bread pudding).

If pistachios aren’t your thing, pecans also go nicely in this bread. Or you can just omit the nuts all together.

For now I’m just going to keep declaring this the best banana bread ever until I come up with something else to nab the title. It’s that good.

The Best Banana Bread Ever (makes 1 9×5 loaf)

Ingredients:

2 ripe bananas

1 1/2 cups spelt flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup olive oil

1/4 cup honey

1 tbsp peanut butter

1/3 cup water

2 tbsp raw pistachios

Handful of chocolate chips (basically as many as you want!)

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350F. Line a 9×5 loaf pan with parchment or coat with cooking spray.

Mash your bananas in a mixing bowl with a potato masher or a fork. Add your honey, water, olive oil, peanut butter and vanilla and mix well. In another mixing bowl add your spelt, baking soda, cinnamon and salt and mix.

Pour your wet ingredients into your dry ingredients and continue to mix well. The dough will be nice and thick (I generally use my stand mixer, but good ol’ fashioned elbow grease works too).Gently fold in your pistachios and chocolate chips and continue to mix until well blended.

Add your mixture to your loaf pan and bake for 50 minutes.

Bake for 50 minutes and remove from the oven and let it cool (if you can wait that long).

Slice, eat, repeat. The best banana bread ever.

When it comes to bread making in our house, the Englishman tends to make the hearty wheat breads that require rising time, and I like to whip up the quick breads. A lot of times I tend to make quick breads on the fly, throwing in whatever we happen to have lying around, and in this case we had a few bananas that were about to go past their prime. I scoured the pantry and decided to make a Vegan Almond Chocolate Banana Bread.

I have a standard Vegan Banana Bread recipe that is my usual go-to, but I decided it was high time to jazz it up a bit. Since the ripe bananas provide a bit of sweetness, you don’t need to add much sugar (if any) to this bread at all! And the end result is a delicious, moist (ugh that word), bread that you’ll want to make again and again. I also like the fact that this bread is vegan, so if we don’t happen to have eggs in the house, I can whip it up any old time.

Vegan Almond Chocolate Banana Bread (adapted from this recipe)

Ingredients:

2-3 very ripe bananas
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 cup oat flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup water

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease and flour a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.

In a large mixing bowl, mash the bananas really well. Add the maple syrup, vanilla and canola oil and blend well.

Sift in the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Use a wooden spoon to mix until the wet and dry ingredients are combined. Add in your almonds, chocolate chips and water and continue to mix well.

Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and sprinkle with cinnamon on top. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes. The top should be lightly browned when the bread is done baking, and then enjoy.

This bread tastes great by itself, with a nice slab of butter, or even mixed with some ice cream!