Tag: Banana Bread

Baking · Bread · Cakes · Vegan

Vegan Banana Bread

What Jessica Baked Next13 Comments

This easy and simple banana bread is a delightfully good vegan treat that uses everyday ingredients and tastes like it’s been made in a bakery! Vegans and non-vegans alike will rave about this recipe. 

 

I’m finally back after a bit of time off over the festive season with my first recipe of 2020 and I guarantee that you’ll go bananas for it!

This year I’m partaking in Veganuary, for the 31 days of this month (at least) I’m going entirely vegan and I’m eating a completely plant-based diet. So far I’ve been really enjoying veganism. Before going vegan I’d been vegetarian for a while and wanted a new challenge to take on.

My sister has gone vegan too and as a family we’ve all been thoroughly enjoying sitting down at the end of the day to devour a vegan feast each night for dinner. This is actually the first time in ages I’ve felt super excited about baking/cooking, for a while I’d felt uninspired but going vegan has encouraged me to really think about what exactly I’m eating and where it’s sourced from.

I also wanted to set myself the goal of sharing more vegan recipes on my blog as I only have a few on here and want to expand the collection. I’ve worked hard in my kitchen at home to bake some vegan treats. Whether you’re following a vegan lifestyle, cannot eat dairy/eggs or simply just want to try some vegan food, then I hope you’ll like the recipes I will be sharing.

I’ve trialled this banana bread recipe out a couple of times as I wanted it to be perfect before posting on here. Every time I’ve baked it, it’s disappeared within a couple of days and as soon as the last slice has been eaten, I’ve been craving it all over again!

This vegan banana bread uses no out of the ordinary ingredients that are sometimes found in vegan bakes. You’ll just need overripe bananas, sugar (either caster/granulated or brown sugar), oil, vanilla extract, non-dairy milk (I use soya), apple cider vinegar, flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt. The soya milk was literally the only ingredient I had to go out and buy to make this recipe, but since going vegan my fridge is now full of plant milk!

My taste testers all agreed that this vegan banana bread is identical in taste and texture to my classic banana bread recipe – dare I say it that I think this version is even better! I’ve adapted this recipe slightly from Betty Crocker’s Vegan Banana Bread recipe and highly recommend you give it a try if you’re as crazy for banana bread as I am.

Mix the recipe up as much as you want by adding extra ingredients such as chopped nuts (hazelnuts, pecans or walnuts) or even some good quality dark chocolate.

Also, if you like spices in your bakes, try stirring a touch of ground cinnamon or mixed spice into the batter.

I have one successful vegan sweet recipe ticked off my list, now on to the next!

Ingredients:

60ml (1/4 cup) unsweetened plant milk – I like using soya milk

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

3 overripe bananas – you’ll want the skin to be spotty and turning black

200g (1 cup) sugar – you can use a mix of caster/granulated or dark/light brown sugar

120ml (1/2 cup) oil – you can use coconut, canola/vegetable or even melted vegan butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

240g (2 cups) all-purpose/plain flour

3/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Method:

  1. Line a 900g / 2lb loaf tin with parchment paper, leaving some paper overhanging the edges of the tin so you can lift the banana bread out easily once it’s baked. Set the tin aside for later. Preheat oven to 180°C / 160°C Fan / 350°F / Gas Mark 4.
  2. In a small bowl or jug, add the soya milk and apple cider vinegar, stir and leave it for 5 minutes – this helps the cake to rise.
  3. In a large mixing bowl, mash the bananas until they’re smooth. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla extract and the milk/vinegar mixture and beat until smooth and completely combined. Now sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt over the top of the other ingredients and gently fold until no lumps of flour remain – be careful not to over mix the batter.
  4. Transfer the batter into the tin and bake for 60-70 minutes or until a cake tester when inserted into the centre comes out clean without any uncooked batter attached to the cake tester. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then remove the banana bread from the tin and leave it to cool completely on a wire rack.
  5. Once the banana bread has cooled to room temperature, slice it up and enjoy. The banana bread will keep stored in an airtight container for up to one week. The banana bread is delicious served as it is or spread with vegan butter, chocolate hazelnut spread or peanut butter.

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Baking · Loaf Cakes

Banana Bread

What Jessica Baked Next14 Comments

Fluffy and moist banana bread loaf. A fantastic recipe for using up any leftover overripe bananas. 

Banana bread is one of my favourite things to bake so I was shocked when I discovered I hadn’t yet shared a banana bread recipe with you, I figured it was time to share our family favourite recipe.

This recipe is possibly one of the, if not the easiest banana breads I have ever made. It can be made either one of two ways, using an all-in-one method or with a mixer using the creaming method, it’s totally up to you as both ways produce an amazing, fluffy and soft banana bread.

The other day it snowed and was too cold to go out, so on my day off work I decided to stay in the warm and spend the day doing some baking. After looking in our fruit bowl, I noticed we had a couple of bananas that looked like they’d seen better days. Whenever I have overripe bananas hanging around on the kitchen counter the first thing I will bake is banana bread or some kind of cake/muffin.

To make good banana bread you’ll need to use fairly overripe bananas. Ideally you want your bananas to be yellow and spotty, overripe bananas will add extra flavour, moistness and sweetness to the bread.

With this recipe you can experiment with different add-ins, sometimes I will even add a couple of handfuls of chocolate chips or nuts such as pecans or walnuts to the batter. Today, I just fancied a traditional banana bread that used ingredients that I already had in.

Don’t worry if your banana bread forms a crack down the centre just like mine did, this is a common trait of banana bread and loaf bread/cakes in general. I personally think it makes the bread look lovely and rustic, banana bread isn’t meant to look pretty it’s definitely all about the taste with recipes like this one!

Oh and just an idea…

If you want to put a spin of this classic banana bread recipe, I recently experimented with this recipe by turning it into a traybake. Simply just double the recipe below and spread the cake batter into a lined 9 x 13-inch (23 x 33cm) tin. Bake the traybake for approx. 40-45 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean and the cake is springy to the touch. Then I piped yummy swirls of cream cheese frosting on top of each piece – for the cream cheese frosting see my Carrot Traybake recipe.

I also topped each piece with salted caramel fudge pieces and sliced banana, but decoration is totally up to you!

Ingredients:

100g (4 ounces) unsalted butter or margarine, softened

175g (6 ounces) caster or granulated sugar

2 large free-range eggs, at room temperature

2 large ripe bananas, mashed

225g (8 ounces) self-raising flour, sifted

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons milk

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 180°C / 160°C Fan / 350°F / Gas Mark 4. Line and grease a 900g (2lb) loaf tin with parchment/non-stick baking paper.
  2. Place all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Using a wooden spoon or a handheld electric mixer, beat all the ingredients together for about 2 minutes until well combined. Alternatively, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy and smooth for about 2-3 minutes. Next add the eggs one at a time making sure you beat well between each addition. Fold through the mashed banana, flour and baking powder until completely incorporated. Finally add the milk and continuing mixing until the batter is smooth.
  3. Spoon the mixture into the lined loaf tin. Bake for an hour or until golden and well risen. Check the banana bread is cooked all the way through by inserting a wooden skewer or cake tester into the centre, if it comes out clean without any uncooked batter remaining then the banana bread is completely baked.
  4. Allow the banana bread to cool in the tin for about 10-15 minutes. Remove from the tin and leave to cool set over a wire rack.
  5. Once cool, slice the banana bread up. It’s delicious served as it is or toasted and spread with butter. Banana bread will keep stored in an airtight container for about a week.

Recipe Notes:

  • You’ll need to use very ripe bananas to make this recipe. The bananas need to be spotty and turning brown, this will bring extra sweetness and moistness to your banana bread.
  • The butter or margarine needs to be really soft in order to be completely incorporated into the batter. I recommend leaving your butter/margarine out overnight to soften.
  • Feel free to add chocolate chips or chopped nuts if you’d like. You could even decorate the top of the banana bread with nuts or stud with chocolate chips, I’m going to try that next time!
  • Try adding a teaspoon or so of ground cinnamon, ginger or mixed spice. I particularly love adding cinnamon to banana bakes.
  • Remember all ovens bake differently. This recipe requires a full hour baking, check the banana bread after 45 minutes of baking, if it’s colouring too much then cover the top with a piece of aluminium foil to prevent it browning any further. Continue baking for the remaining 15 minutes until the a cake tester comes out completely clean, with no uncooked cake batter on it.

Recipe from Mary Berry’s 100 Cakes and Bakes

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