Vegan Banana Bread with Brown Sugar

Super easy to make, sweetened with brown sugar, and perfect for either breakfast or as a snack, this vegan banana bread is also dirt cheap to make – $2.43 for the entire loaf.

Oh, banana bread. How perfect are you? Pre-run snack? Yes. Post-run snack? Obviously. Add some peanut butter and – if you dare – sliced banana on top, and there’s breakfast. A slice with some soup and a salad and you’ve got lunch. Eat a loaf with a fork for dinner. Who’s stopping you?

While vegan banana peanut butter muffins was one of my first recipes on this blog, I’ve been itching to tackle a whole banana loaf. I started tweaking in December to find the perfect combination of ingredients and, after several loaves which I greedily devoured, ended up with this moist, sweet, crunchy-topped perfection.

I credit Simple Veganista’s recipe for inspiration.

Unlike my muffins, I didn’t want to use oat flour for the banana bread but rather good old all-purpose flour, opting for a more traditional taste.

I also decided to use brown sugar to sweeten the banana bread for a more molassesy taste. Yes, molassesy is a word.

INGREDIENTS

This recipe has just nine ingredients.

As with just about any banana-related baking, you want to start with overripe bananas.

I was actually worried that my bananas weren’t ripe enough, but they were fine.

If your bananas do not have any brown spots, do not make this recipe.

This is the only thing that might hold up your baking, as most stores don’t sell bananas in this shape (if they do, buy them!), so it might require a few days of patience while they brown.

INSTRUCTIONS

Additional instructions are in the recipe at the bottom of this post.

This recipe is very simple: mix the dry, mix the wet, combine, pour, and bake!

After pre-heating the oven and greasing the pan, you can mix the dry ingredients first and set aside. If the brown sugar is lumpy, use your fingers to break up the lumps.

1. Mash the banana with a fork.
2. Leave this mixture as lumpy as you want. I love lumps!
3. Add the other wet ingredients to the banana mash.
4. Gather your dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
5. Pour the wet into dry (or whichever bowl is larger).
6. Mix until just combined, or until you no longer see any flour clumps.

Pour the batter into the greased pan. You don’t have to do this, but I like to use a spatula to even out the top so it rises fairly evenly. or, leave it messy if you want. Up to you!

Also optional but recommended: sprinkle some brown sugar on top of the batter. I had this idea in one of my tests and never looked back. I like to keep this on the lighter side – the bread will already be sweet from the brown sugar inside the batter, as well as from the bananas. But you do you! Sprinkle away!

For the record, I used light brown sugar for this recipe. Dark brown sugar will also work – it might just have a slightly deeper molasses flavor.

After baking, remove the pan from the oven carefully and let it cool on a rack for at least 10-15 minutes. Some might recommend cooling for longer, but I always like to slice into it while it’s still warm.

Cracks are perfectly normal. Even if they somehow look like a slightly worried face.

TIPS

• Use overripe bananas. I know I mentioned this earlier, but it cannot be stated enough. Even if you think, “no way, these bananas are too brown.” Use the brown bananas.
• Don’t worry about the exact weight of the bananas. I wanted to be sure to point this out, because this surprised me. In the five tests I did for this recipe, I used either three or four bananas of varying sizes, with the total weight of peeled bananas ranging from 363 grams to 493 grams – a difference of 4.6 ounces. Each loaf was good. The more banana I used, the moister the loaf was, but the smaller amount didn’t make the bread dry. So despite the fact that the recipe card has a weight, don’t worry about it. Just use three or four bananas (maybe if they’re large, stick with three).
• Weigh the flour or scoop it very loosely. I’ve noticed that when I scoop flour using a 1/4 cup and level it off, it always weighs more than what the label says 1/4 cup of flour should weigh. I think this is common and likely causes more baking “fails” than we realize. For baking, I always think using a food scale is the way to go, but if you don’t have one, just spoon the flour into measuring cups as loosely as you can, and then use a knife to level off the top.
• Break up the brown sugar lumps. Since brown sugar tends to form small lumps, you can break these up with your fingers once the sugar has been mixed into the dry ingredients (but preferably before the wet ones have been added).
• Use one bowl if you want. I tend to like to separate my dry and wet ingredients until the last second, but it’s not necessary.
• Bake for slightly longer if you want. I’ve found that baking for 50 minutes works for this recipe, but if you prefer a darker crust, leave it in for longer until it’s reached the color you want.

SUBSTITUTIONS

• Flour. You can substitute another flour, but not every flour will work. Typically, you can’t directly substitute almond flour or coconut flour for all-purpose flour. I substituted oat flour in one of my tests. The oat flour loaf tasted fine – obviously, more like oats – but the dough barely rose and the bread was more dense.
• Oil. You can substitute another oil or even applesauce for the coconut oil. I like my banana bread to have a bit of greasy fat in it, so I opted for coconut oil. I used unrefined, which I like, but know that refined coconut oil has less of a coconut taste. More on refined vs. unrefined coconut oil.
• Sugar. You can use regular white sugar instead of brown. I used brown because I prefer the taste, and I wanted to give the recipe a little twist. You can also use finely chopped dates instead of sugar, or just leave the sweetener out entirely, simply relying on the bananas to sweeten. Remember, the browner they are, the sweeter they will be.

Look at those li’l chunks.

These cinnamon sticks are just for show, and to remind everyone that there is cinnamon in this recipe! On that note, don’t forget the cinnamon. It’s good with the cinnamon.

COST BREAKDOWN

I knew this wouldn’t be expensive, but I was surprised at just how inexpensive this banana bread is: $2.43 for the entire loaf.

For most of my recipes, I am listing amounts for the least expensive ingredients I can find. For example, the cinnamon I typically buy is more expensive than Target’s Good & Gather brand, which is the cheapest price I’ve seen for cinnamon – so that’s the one I will use for this cost breakdown.

The most expensive ingredient in this recipe is the coconut oil. I should note that I have not done all the research out there on coconut oil prices, so for now I will use the cost of the brand I used (which might not be the cheapest).

In short, I’m doing my best to give you an accurate but inexpensive breakdown of what these recipes could cost.

Cost breakdown of ingredients:

• all-purpose flour: $0.35
• brown sugar: $0.28
• baking powder: $0.07
• baking soda: $0.01
• salt: $0.01
• cinnamon: $0.05
• bananas: $0.47
• coconut oil: $0.83
• vanilla extract: $0.38

Total cost: $2.43

If cut into 8 slices, that’s about 30 cents a slice. Honestly, for this loaf 8 slices is a pretty generous slice – you might be fine with 9 or even 10 slices, cutting the cost per slice even more.

I live in NYC, so of course my costs might differ from people who live elsewhere, but a few tips: store brands are usually cheapest. Whole Foods’ 365 brand has an inexpensive line of baking ingredients (the store also has cheap bananas at 49 cents a pound). Vanilla extract – an ingredient worth more in weight than gold – seems to be cheapest per ounce at Trader Joe’s.

If you make this, please let me know how it goes in the comments!