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!