Dairy-free Chocolate Banana Bread

Dairy-free Chocolate Banana Bread

All year long I keep the house stocked with a couple bunches of bananas. Bananas are the perfect portable snack, not requiring any equipment or electronic storage to eat (as long as they don’t get smashed:). I keep bananas stocked even in the summer when the tendency is for them to turn quickly.  So I constantly make banana bread. What a shame, right? I kept asking the kids, “what kind of banana bread should I make?” The unanimous answer on most occasions was “CHOCOLATE!”

I might have made this every week this summer. I even brought it on our ten day road trip since it’s so portable, moist and delicious. I love baking the banana bread on the weekend so I have the bread ready as a quick breakfast for those crazy mornings…or a nice snack midday…or as a healthier dessert. It works swimmingly for all I must say!

I always make this chocolate banana bread dairy-free, and it easily becomes vegan with chia or flax “eggs”. I make it vegan about half the time.

A few Mother’s Days ago my husband, after seeing my disgust at the teflon flaking off onto my mini loaves which were supposed to be gifts for the secretaries at my school, my husband bought me this awesome Lodge Cast Iron Skillet Drop Biscuit Pan. I love having the small totable size.

This recipe makes two loaves. If you end up baking it in the drop biscuit pan, baking time decreases to 40 minutes. I usually bake one loaf in a loaf pan, and the other simultaneously in this drop biscuit pan.

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Dairy-free Chocolate Banana Bread

Course Breakfast, Dessert, Snack

Prep Time 12 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour 12 minutes

Servings 2 9x5 Loaves

Author Sonja Sarr

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup Coconut Oil softened
• 1 1/4 cups Coconut Sugar or granulated sugar of choice
• 3 cups ripe Bananas mashed (about 7 medium Bananas)
• 2 Eggs or 2 "Chia"-Eggs (2 Tablespoons chia seed mixed with 6 Tablespoons of water, sitting for a few minutes until chia seeds are gel-like)
• 1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
• 2   cups White Whole Wheat Flour I use Trader Joe's Brand
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 2 Teaspoons Ground Flax Seed
• 1 cup Walnuts chopped

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Cream together coconut oil and sugar. Then add in the bananas, eggs, and vanilla, and stir until combined.
3. In a medium bowl combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt well.
4. Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and stir until combined.
5. Mix in the flax seed, and walnuts, and stir until combined.
6. Pour into two ungreased 9 x 5 inch loaf pans (the coconut oil naturally greases the pans).
7. Bake both loaves on the center rack for approximately 60-70 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the loaves come out clean.
8. Cool. slice, and enjoy!