Vegan Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Banana Bread

Because everyone needs a good banana bread in their arsenal of recipes, right? Better yet, lets make it vegan and refined sugar free. And load it up with nut butter and chocolate chips!

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We always have bananas in our house. I just pick up a few every Sunday when I’m at the market. If we don’t eat them straight, they end up in oats, put in the freezer for smoothies, or on toast. But what I really like to happen is for them to ripen up, you know, with all the brown spots, which is when they are perfect for baking. Super soft, super sweet. At this point, you hardly need sugar in a recipe because the banana provides so much sweetness on it’s own.

I’ve been messing around with a vegan banana bread recipe for a while. It took me a few tries to get it right, but I finally did it. I wanted something that wasn’t too (for lack of a better word) moist but not too dry or dense. Something that used the natural sweetness of bananas so I could limit sugar. Also a bread that didn’t use eggs so I could make it vegan. The ground flax and chia seed is a great combo, and the chia provides a nice little crunch. These two are key in binding the bread. My first attempts, I just tossed in the flax and chia without letting it sit in water and gel up. This actually works and if you want to do that you can. But I find it binds even better when you let the chia sit and coagulate.

So what else do we have going on with this bread? We’ve got chocolate chips, not too many, because that’s just how I like it. If you loooove chocolate chips, add more! If you’re like my husband who couldn’t care less about chocolate chips in baked goods (I don’t even know where to start with that one), then you can leave them out. But I would definitely add some nuts in that case. This is a loaded banana bread. You want all the good stuff in there. Heck, toss is a 1/4 cup or half cup of chopped walnuts with the chocolate chips if you want.

Then there’s the peanut butter. I love this addition. It’s swirled in right before you go to bake it. You want to make sure it’s a drippy peanut butter. This will make it a lot easier to spread. If yours isn’t drippy, try thinning it out slightly before you add it. I put a few dollops on the top then really work it with a knife. You want to swirl up and down, round and round. What you don’t want is big globs. Swirl, swirl baby!

Ok back to the chia and flax for a minute. Like I mentioned, they are used to bind the bread together. Hopefully you have both on hand. If for whatever reason you don’t, here’s what you can do. Sub just one flax egg for the chia egg in which case still toss in the other tablespoon of ground flax. Now if you don’t have flax, leave it out all together. Do not substitute chia for flax. Just use one chia egg.

Now let’s get to baking huh! Oh, and when you serve this, it’s delicious plain and warmed up. Other ways? A nice spread of more peanut butter, because who doesn’t want more peanut butter. You could also do a little spread of butter or vegan butter. Stored on the counter, in an airtight container for about 4 days.

If you’re looking for more yummy loafs to make, might I suggest

This WALNUT BANANA BREAD. So good, a lot different from this one. More dense and rich. Not vegan but I include vegan substitutions

This DOUBLE CHOCOLATE CHIP VEGAN BANANA BREAD. So much chocolatey goodness. Plus it GF and refined sugar free

This is a treat. CINNAMON ROLL BANANA BREAD. So ooey gooey and yummy

And just for fun, a GINGERBREAD LOAF WITH VEGAN CREAM CHEESE FROSTING. Such a treat