Life Changing Banana Bread
One of my favourite things to do when I have a million and one school assignments on my plate is to pretend they don’t exist and bake instead. It’s very productive, I know, but it gives me a break to relax for a bit and I find the process of mixing ingredients together can be very therapeutic. Yesterday, in the midst of my 100 pages of Molière to read, I decided instead to listen to my body, and my body was crying out for some banana bread. Conveniently, I had only 3 bananas left and they were all pretty brown and mushy- perfect for baking a loaf. I walked to the grocery store and got the few other ingredients that I didn’t already have on hand, which was also a nice part of the process for getting me out of the house and into some fresh air. The little bit of exercise from the brisk five minute walk was also great for increasing blood flow and getting more oxygen to my brain, so really this baking extravaganza was doing my whole body a favour before getting back to work.
I found this recipe on Pinterest and give full credit to The Baking Fairy who completely changed my life. She calls this the perfect vegan banana bread recipe and I could not agree more. Since going vegan, a lot of my baking attempts are really just that: attempts. They don’t end well. In fact, they usually end in the garbage because no one wants to go near them, and that’s never a good sign with baked goods. As I become a more experienced vegan, however, I am slowly reaching a higher success rate with my baking endeavours. This one was absolutely in the top 3, right behind the healthy but ooey gooey black bean brownies and the unhealthy but insanely delicious non-black bean brownies. Depending if you’re in a chocolate mood or a banana loaf-y mood, this one might just rank as number 1. I’m telling you, it’s THAT good. Even my roommates were gushing about it! As much as I love when I make something that actually tastes so good that everyone wants to devour it, I’m not very good at sharing when it comes to baked goods, so I had to hide it in my room to make sure that the majority of the loaf was consumed by me. Ironically enough, the last time I tried to make banana bread I hid it in my room as well, but for a very different reason. I hid it in my room because everyone saw me making it and expressed their excitement to try it and when it turned out to be a rock hard on the outside but overly gooey on the inside DISASTER, I was so ashamed that I thought everyone would forget about it if they simply never saw an end product. It worked, and my sad loaf sat in the corner of my room where I picked at it disappointedly for a few days before throwing it away.
Anywho, enough rambling! I’m going to get on and tell you the recipe. I’ll also link you to the original version right here: http://www.thebakingfairy.net/2015/05/the-perfect-vegan-
banana-bread/
You will need…
3 medium ripe bananas¼ cup coconut oil (the original calls for vegetable oil but I prefer coconut)
¼ cup almond milk
½ cup light brown sugar
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp saltsliced bananas, for topping (I didn’t do this)
**1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips – this is the perfect amount! Too many chocolate chips in banana bread takes away from it’s banana flavour, in my opinion, but just 1/4 cup is the perfect amount! Semi-sweet is great too because, most importantly, most no names versions of them are vegan (score!) and secondly, they aren’t too sweet, (obviously.. that’s why they’re called semi-sweet) so they add the perfect amount of chocolatey flavour without overpowering the banana. It is just perfection!
Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray a 9×5 loaf pan with nonstick spray, then flour.
In a large mixing bowl, roughly mash the bananas. You don’t want total mush, so leave some little chunks! (**not true, chunks are gross. Mash that shit.) Add the brown sugar, oil, vanilla, and almond milk, and whisk to incorporate.
Sift in the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, and use a wooden spoon to mix. **sprinkle in your choco chips right about now 🙂 YUM!
Transfer the batter to your prepared pan, and top with the extra banana slices.
Bake for about 45 minutes, then cover with foil and bake for 10-15 minutes longer, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a couple crumbs.
(All things marked with ** are my additions to the recipe, if you couldn’t already guess)
I literally copy and pasted this recipe right in and added my little notes so please don’t sue me. Since the only people who read this blog are my parents and Claire (love y’all, my true fans <3) I don’t think copyright allegations will be a problem. But you never know when this blog will blow up, I’m still waiting to make it big in the blogosphere… Anyway, I highly recommend you go RIGHT NOW and get to baking this bad boy! I promise you will not regret it! It’s not even that unhealthy, really, so eating half the loaf in one sitting isn’t something to feel bad about (I’m trying to tell myself this after eating half the loaf in one sitting. No regrets!)