While there are a handful of banana bread recipes on OE, I was missing a basic spelt banana bread – this is the one I make most often. The add-ins are flexible so you can add whatever you like most to the loaf.
Already vegan and with no egg subs, this is truly a simple recipe. No flax, chia, or aquafaba needed, as bananas are an excellent binding agent already.
This is made in one bowl, so less dishes! You do need to be a bit careful not to over-mix as spelt is lower in gluten. There are several changes you can make to adapt it to what you like most, so see below for some notes on that, and make this really easy snack.
Ingredients
- Spelt Flour: use whole grain, light, or a mixture of the two.
- Coconut Sugar: this adds a nice caramel flavour to the bread.
- Bananas: overripe is best – it’s lightly sweetened, so the riper the bananas are, the sweeter the banana bread will be.
- Olive Oil: like coconut sugar, adds some complexity, but can be subbed (see below).
- Oat Milk: or any non-dairy milk. Not canned coconut milk.
- Baking Powder, Baking Soda, Cinnamon, Salt
- Add-ins: pictured are chocolate chips and sunflower seeds. See below for more on this.
Step by Step
If you can’t see the accompanying recipe video, watch it here.
Notes and Substitutions
Use either light or whole grain spelt flour, or a combination of the two. You can use other types of flour that contain gluten (but this is a spelt-specific recipe, so I can’t really provide guidance on that).
Regarding additions – by this I mean the chocolate and seeds, in this case. You could use chopped chocolate rather than chips, nuts, raisins or other dried fruit, any type of seeds (barring chia, which absorbs too much water). You can also leave them out altogether if you prefer a plain banana bread.
The add-ins are provided here by both weight and volume. Generally speaking, seeds/chocolate/dried fruit weigh approximately the same amount, so you’re fine changing it up but using the same weight. If it’s a bit more or less it won’t make such a difference to the recipe.
My tin for the pictured loaf is 11.5 by 26cm (4.5 by 10 in.) so it’s slightly longer and narrower than a standard tin. The baking time doesn’t change when using a slightly wider tin, but it’s good to do a skewer test just in case.
Use another oil that’s liquid at room temperature in place of olive oil if preferred. Melted coconut oil can also be used but it will make for a slightly denser banana bread.
If you need a GF version, here’s a recipe for vegan gluten free banana bread.
More Banana Recipes
Vegan Banana Blueberry Muffins
Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Cookies
Vegan Banana Milkshake
Chocolate Chip Coconut Banana Bread
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Spelt Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 3 large ripe bananas 500g / 18 oz. weighed with peel
- 180 ml oat milk
- 50 ml olive oil
- 300 grams spelt flour
- 80 grams coconut sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 150 grams add-ins (chocolate chips, seeds, nuts, etc.)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease or line a bread tin.
- Peel the bananas and add them to a large mixing bowl. Mash with a fork.
- Add the milk and olive oil to the bowl and mix to combine.
- Add the spelt flour, coconut sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and add-ins to the mixing bowl. Use a wooden spoon or spatula to mix until just combined, but don't over mix.
- Spoon into the prepared tin and even out the top of the batter.
- Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted into the centre of the loaf comes out clean.
- Cool for a few minutes before carefully removing from the tin and cooling fully on a wire rack.
- Spelt banana bread freezes well and will keep, in a sealed container, for several days at room temperature and longer in the refrigerator.
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