This past weekend, I planned a spontaneous surprise visit home to my family in Florida. I hadn’t been home since Christmas, and I am about to start a new job on Monday, so it was the perfect bit of time to sneak back home to the East coast for a visit. It was also the perfect time to experiment in the kitchen…
I decided to test some of my old bread recipes, and finally perfect a gluten-free banana bread. I absolutely love the moist gooey texture of the real-deal banana bread from my childhood. My mom either put walnuts or chocolate chips in for crunch, or that extra bit of sweetness. However, this time, I decided to keep it simple and just add vegan chocolate chips. Same sweetness–no dairy. Win win. I am not vegan, but I do like to substitute vegan options when possible in my recipes to make the dish even healthier/guilt-free. I like to keep dairy to a minimum, and that’s often difficult when landing a killer dessert recipe, but I decided to give it a shot with this banana bread. And luckily…it worked! My entire family approved, and begged me for the recipe to recreate at home once I left…and all the crumbs were consumed.
You can make substitutions in this recipe by adding regular chocolate chips, or do half brown-sugar and half liquid maple syrup. However, I like the way the maple-syrup/honey mixture turned out…made the bread dense but still gooey and melt-in-your-mouth delicious. I hope you all have success with this recipe and enjoy it as much as my family and I did!
- 2 cups Bob's Red Mill gluten free flour (or any gluten-free flour)
- 4 very ripe bananas, mashed
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- ¼ raw honey
- ½ cup sugar-free organic applesauce (you can sub butter here)
- 2 eggs
- 2 tablespoons almond milk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½-1 cup vegan chocolate chips ( I used 1 cup)
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan, set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, set aside. In a separate bowl, mix together applesauce and liquid sweeteners. Stir in eggs, milk, vanilla, and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture and chocolate chips into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
- Bake in preheated oven for 50 to 55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for at least minutes, then slice and serve warm!
Happy baking! xx
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