my first vegan banana bread

It must be banana season! They are everywhere right now, friends from all directions sending them my way. So, naturally, I feel the need to create something with them. Besides freezing mass amounts at a time to feed my daily smoothie addiction, I’ve been experimenting with banana bread. My inspiration for a vegan version, besides my almost vegan diet, is from my vegan friend George, who has agreed to donate his bananas (and he has a lot of bananas) to my bread in exchange for a few loaves. 

I started with a recipe I found online, http://www.vegrecipesofindia.com. 

4 medium ripe bananas, or 6 apple bananas in my case

1 ½ cups whole wheat flour

½ cup coconut oil

½ cup organic brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 ½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

I added one tsp cinnamon and

½ cup chopped walnuts.

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Grease loaf pan with coconut oil
• Mash bananas with masher or fork until very gooey
• Add oil, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon
• Sift in flour, baking soda, and baking powder
• Fold until mixed evenly
• Add walnuts and fold these
• Pour into loaf pan and bake for 30-40 min, or until a knife inserted into the loaf comes out clean, no goo.

Allow to cool slightly, remove from pan, and serve warm.

Now, in my case, I only have a measly toaster oven for my baking experiences so I baked my bread for about an hour. I just kept poking it with a knife until it seemed solid. I will be doing some baking this week with my mother’s full size oven, so I’ll be sure to let you know the difference! This first attempt wasn't perfect. I thought it was too oily and too banana-y when I first cut into it, when it was warm. Still very tasty. But the next day, thats where its at. Since the only oil in the bread was coconut oil, which hardens when it cools, the bread the next morning was amazing! Very dense and rich, but held together beautifully! My husband ate the rest of the loaf that day. 

Attempt number two coming soon...