Whoa whoa whoa. I think I may have just set a record for longest recipe title, but a lot of words were needed to accurately describe this beauty of a loaf. To be honest, I could still elaborate on all the elements of this banana bread to include the fact that it’s vegan and gluten free, but according to my psychology professor, short term memory can only retain 7 ‘blocks’ at once, so my 11 is already an overkill.
That being said, I’m sure you still want to know what went in to making this perfect banana bread, right?
Spotty bananas are treated like currency between me, myself, and I; should I spend them on baking, or save them for my cereal? Nana cream or smoothie? You may be thinking, “Leung, they are just bananas”, but by the time the bunch ripens a week later, you just want to savour each bite. I come across this multi-lemna several times a month.
I’m quite particular when it comes to my banana preferences. Fully yellow bananas with just a few speckles are what I consider the perfect ripeness. Anything before that is not ready to eat. I watch in horror when other people put a barely yellow banana into their smoothie. “…add a ripe banana and…” NOOOOO!! He was so young…
Once I took a bite out of a banana with a still-green stem, and it was the starchiest thing I’d ever eaten. Immediate taste aversion to green bananas, blech.
When the bananas go past ‘just speckled’ to ‘brown splotches’, they’re best for smoothies, nana cream, baking, or vegan french toast. The intense sweetness of really ripe bananas does a great job of masking the mound of spinach I stick into my green smoothie and also reducing the need for added sugar in baked goods. All the sweetness in this loaf of banana bread comes from 4 bananas and half a cup of dates, that’s it! Okay, and maybe that handful (or two) of chocolate chunks as well. Dumping into an entire cup of granulated sugar is totally unnecessary.
Of course I couldn’t just make a ‘normal’ loaf of banana bread, because normal is not a thing around here. Have you seen our pies? No normal apple pies or pecan pies in sight. We like it epic. My idea of epic includes all my favourite baking ingredients: toasted coconut, toasted pecans, buckwheat flour, and chocolate chunks. Right before I finished making the batter, I remembered how delicious the molasses crumble on our apple pie was. Naturally, I had to top it off with some of that too, and man am I so glad I did. The extra crunch that caps each slice is delightful!
I’ve fidgeted with vegan and gluten free banana breads on and off, hoping to strike the gold mine each time. The loaf would either be too gummy or too dry, vegan but not gluten free, or gluten free but not vegan. But this time, this time I nailed it, vegan, gluten free, refined sugar free, perfect crumb, all in the bulls-eye. Friends, we have arrived at our golden banana bread recipe. I shall need no other.
- "WET" MIXTURE
- 4 very ripe bananas
- ½ cup pitted dates
- ¾ cup coconut milk
- 2 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp chia seeds
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp espresso powder (optional)
- ½ tsp salt
- "DRY" MIXTURE
- 1¼ cup quick cook oats, ground into flour
- ½ cup raw quinoa, ground into flour
- ¼ cup buckwheat flour, or more oat flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ cup pecans, toasted* and roughly chopped
- ½ cup chocolate chunks
- ½ cup toasted coconut**
- MOLASSES CRUMBLE
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 4 pitted dates
- 1 tbsp molasses
- ⅓ cup old fashioned oats
- ¼ cup coconut chips
- Preheat oven to 350⁰F and line a 8" by 4" loaf pan with parchment paper.
- In a food processor, add all the ingredients for the wet mixture and process until smooth.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all the ingredients for the dry mixture. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and use a spatula to mix until fully incorporated. Pour batter into the prepared loaf pan and smooth out the top with the spatula.
- In the same food processor (no need to clean it out), blend the coconut oil and dates for the molasses crumble to make a paste. Add the molasses, oats, and coconut chips and pulse until combined. Gently press the crumble mixture evenly over the surface of the batter and bake it in the oven for 60 to 65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few moist crumbs. Cool completely on a cooling rack before removing from the pan and slicing.
**Although I used coconut chips, I would recommend using unsweetened shredded coconut. Toast coconut in a 350⁰F oven for 1 to 2 minutes
This sounds INCREDIBLE! I lovelovelove banana bread, but it’s seriously tough to find a refined sugar-free/gluten free recipe! Pinned!
Hi Alexa! Glad we could fulfill your wishes with this loaf, enjoy!
Beautiful cake ?, making it now for the second time, it’s a real winner ?
Yay! We’re so glad you love it too, Julie ?
The ingredients in this are exactly the stuff I love to bake with! Thanks for the interesting combo idea.