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Georgia's Vegan Banana Bread

Ingredients

1.5 cup or 2 large, very ripe bananas (more black and squishy is better)
3 Tbsp of coconut oil
3 Tbsp of chia sees
3 tablespoons brown sugar or other dark sugar
3 tablespoon of molasses, golden syrup, maple syrup or other
a few drops of vanilla extract
2 teaspoon of ground cardamom (to taste)
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
400g flour of choice
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
250mL of rice, soya or oat milk
A good pinch of salt

Georgia's Insights on Banana Bread Making

Banana bread is one of our favourite recipes to cook at Conscious Kitchen. It’s the perfect thing to make when we get a crate of brown, overripe and pungent bananas. In this case, the browner the better as they’re packed with more natural sugars. There are many variants of this recipe, even within our volunteer team, so I am honoured to share my version.When I first tried vegan cake baking, I was often frustrated with the results as my cakes were quite dense and flat, I really missed that oily, butter taste and they often seemed too sweet. I talked it over with a few volunteers and learnt some tips. Firstly, I learnt that the enemy of vegan baking is stirring – so I am now very, very careful to avoid overmixing when I add the dry ingredients to the wet banana batter. Like barely combining it together. Secondly, I prefer to use coconut oil, which has a blander taste and am careful to add this early in the baking process so it’s really combined in the mix. Lastly, to give the maximum flavour without using lots of sugar, I use a combination of dark brown sugar and molasses as well as a generous helping of spice (to be honest I probably use more than listed in the ingredients but it’s useful as a guide). The cardamom fades as a background flavour and the molasses gives a caramel-y depth, so I find I don’t miss that extra sweet taste.

The Method

Heat your oven to 180 deg celcius or 170 deg fan forced. Use a generous amount of coconut oil to grease your cake tin, here I used a loaf shaped tin.
First make a chia pudding, to substitute eggs, by taking the chia seeds and placing them in a cup with about 50mL of the plant-based milk. Stir this thoroughly and set aside.
In a large bowl, place the ripened bananas and mash them with a fork, trying to make the bananas as smooth and liquid as possible. In a separate small bowl add the coconut oil and melt it in the microwave or separately on the stove.
Then add the coconut oil to the bananas, and then add the cardamom, cinnamon, brown sugar, molasses and vanilla. Stir this mix together until completely smooth and combined. To this mixture stir in the remaining 200mL plant-based milk, as well as the chia pudding and set aside the bowl.
In a separate large bowl add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and a good pinch of salt. Mix this together. Then add this flour mix to the banana liquid bowl and stir very, very carefully. Stir until it is barely combined, before pouring the cake batter into the tin and placing into the oven. Cook for about 45-55 minutes until golden on top. To check whether it is done touch the top of the cake and look for it springing back into shape, or when it is stuck with a fork and it comes out clear.

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