Cacao Coconut Banana Bread

We've been baking this particularly fabulous (and vegan!) loaf of banana bread every week since January. This is your perfect weekend or -- in our case -- snow day baking project. Yup. We've got yet another snow day over here today.

Anyway, banana bread tastes great, is semi-healthy, and is hard to mess up. You can use up those past-peak bananas and add in whatever you have in the pantry.

And kids love to help (and eat!).

CACAO COCONUT BANANA BREAD

What you'll need . . . 

• 3 super ripe bananas
• 1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1/2 cup coconut palm sugar
• 1 cup unsweetened coconut milk (refrigerated kind)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup white flour
• Scant 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• Heaping 1/4 cup cacao powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• Handful unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Method . . . 

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Spritz a glass 9x5 loaf pan with cooking spray or coat in a little coconut oil.
2. Mash the bananas until they are goopy. You can also run them in your mixer with the paddle attachment.
3. Add the oil, sugar, coconut milk, and vanilla extract to the bowl and whisk well. 
4. Then toss in the dry ingredients -- except the shredded coconut and chocolate chips -- and mix until just incorporated.
5. Then briefly fold in the chocolate chips and coconut flakes.
6. Bake for 50 minutes to a full hour, until edges slightly pull away from sides of pan and the center is set. (You can insert a toothpick -- I used a knife! -- to check.)
7. Let your loaf cool for 20 minutes or so before taking it out of the pan to cool the rest of the way on your cooling rack. 

Slice and enjoy with a good smattering of peanut butter!


Related recipes:

• The BEST Banana Bread
• Nutella + Chocolate Chip Banana Bread 
• Banumpkin Bread 
• Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread
• Cinnamon Raisin Applesauce Bread 
• Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins

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Nutella + Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

We had three beyond-ripe bananas I needed to use up before a house showing tonight (they were stinking up the place), and I remembered how much my best friend Lindsey loves our Peanut Butter + Chocolate Chip Banana Bread. Expect, I also know that she loves all things Nutella even more. So, you know -- I made this recipe specifically for her.

Except I'm not so sure it'll last until the next time we're together.

Could you resist this?

// NUTELLA BANANA BREAD
I used Aldi's hazelnut-chocolate spread -- and it's magical!

What you'll need . . .

• 3 medium bananas (riper is better)
• 2 tablespoons flax meal 
• 3/4 cup warm almond milk (unsweetened, preferably) 
• 1/2 cup Nutella (or off-brand)
• 1/4 cup olive oil 
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup 
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 
• 2 cups whole wheat flour, sifted
• 1 tablespoon baking powder 
• Pinch salt 
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Method . . .

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a glass loaf pan and set aside.
2. Mash the bananas until they are goopy.  Set aside. Also mix together the flax meal with 3/4 cup of WARM almond milk. Then set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the Nutella, olive oil, maple syrup, and vanilla extract. Then add in the flax meal mixture and bananas.
4. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add these dry ingredients to the wet using a spatula and mix until just combined. Do not over-mix.
5. Fold in chocolate chips and let rest for five minutes (to let the baking powder react). Then pour mixture into prepared loaf pan and bake for 55 minutes to 1 hour.
6. After the time is up, take loaf out and poke with a knife or bamboo skewer (something to get in there deep!). If it doesn't come out clean, cover with some tin foil and return to oven for up to 15 minutes, checking periodically for done-ness.
7. Let cool before tipping out of loaf pan and slicing.

Not much else to say except:

GO MAKE THIS RECIPE NOW!

And . . .


Nutella Pie with Strawberries


Nutella-Pear Oatmeal


Nutella Mini-Chip Cookies


Vegan, Gluten-Free "Nutella" Balls


Nutella Ice Cream


Nutella Brownies


Rich Chocolate Pumpkin Cake with Nutella-Pumpkin Frosting


Chocolate-Covered Strawberries Smoothie

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Better Banana Bread

I absolutely abhor vegan banana bread. Well, until yesterday I did. Every single recipe I've ever followed has yielded this dense-in-a-bad-way, soggy-in-the-center heavy brick of a baked good that usually needs toasting to taste remotely OK.  

(That's dramatic. Stephen usually likes what I make quite a bit.)

Anyway, we had friends over for the New Year yesterday, and -- at the very last minute -- I decided I needed to make something . . . something using basically nothing (our cupboards are bare) but bananas, chocolate chips, peanut butter, flour, and some odds and ends for sweeteners and stabilizers.

"Alright," I thought. "Let's do this!" A heaping tablespoon of baking powder later, and the usual gross pocket of wetness in the middle was actually . . . done. Perfectly moist and sweet and, dare I say somewhat fluffy? Jury is still out on that one, but I thought it was.

And now I freaking l.o.v.e vegan banana bread. Enough to bake up another loaf tonight!

This time, I'm not sharing.


BETTER BANANA BREAD

What you'll need . . .

• 3 medium bananas (riper is better)
• 2 tablespoons flax meal 
• 3/4 cup warm almond milk (unsweetened, preferably) 
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar 
• 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter or almond butter
• 1/4 cup olive oil 
• 1/3 cup maple syrup 
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 
• 1 cup all purpose flour 
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour 
• 1 tablespoon baking powder 
• Pinch salt 
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Method . . .

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a glass loaf pan and set aside.
2. Mash the bananas until they are goopy.  Set aside. Also mix together the flax meal with 3/4 cup (sorry for the typo!) of the warm almond milk. Then set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the brown sugar, peanut butter, olive oil, maple syrup, and vanilla extract. Then add in the flax meal mixture and bananas.
4. In another bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, and salt. Add these dry ingredients to the wet using a spatula and mix until just combined. Do not over-mix.
5. Fold in chocolate chips. Then pour mixture into prepared loaf pan and bake for 1 hour.
6. After the hour is up, take loaf out and poke with a knife or bamboo skewer (something to get in there deep!). If it doesn't come out clean, cover with some tin foil and return to oven for up to 15 minutes, checking periodically for done-ness.
7. Let cool before tipping out of loaf pan and slicing.

Pretty psyched to start filling up the recipes for 2013. If you didn't catch yesterday's post, you can see a recap of our Favorite Recipes of 2012. Same thing with Running in 2012 . . . and Parenting in 2012.

But the fun doesn't stop there: Here's how we spent New Year's Day. As well, this year's "resolutions" are over on Writing Chapter Three.

Here's to a great year!

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