This is the BEST vegan chocolate chip banana bread. Intense banana flavor with a few simple tricks! Unbelievably moist and delicious, it takes less than 20 minutes to get in the oven...no mixer is necessary.
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🍫 Why This Recipe Works
Looking for a vegan-friendly banana bread recipe that keeps moist and tender for days? This is it! With less than 20 minutes of hands-on time, this loaf is a breeze to make. Here's why it works so well:
- Using frozen-then-thawed, over-ripe bananas breaks the cell structures and releases more flavor for a loaf of super banana-y banana bread!
- Aquafaba for a more tender crumb
- Melted butter makes it soft without being cakey
- Apple cider vinegar for a fluffy texture
🧈 Ingredient Notes
Bananas - I like frozen bananas in this recipe because the thawing process breaks the cell structures, releasing more of the banana's flavor. Plus, there are always a few sitting in the freezer! Fresh bananas are totally fine as well, as long as you're using over-ripe ones. More on browning bananas for banana bread below.
Chocolate Chips - I like to use semi-sweet mini chocolate chips. You could use whichever variety you have available, including chopped chocolate chunks.
Baking Soda & Apple Cider Vinegar - Mixing these two ingredients releases carbon dioxide, which makes the banana bread fluffy and moist.
Aquafaba - Saponins in bean brine hold onto the air bubbles really well. It's my favorite not-so-secret ingredient for this moist vegan vanilla cake, too.
Plant Milk - I like unsweetened soy milk, but oat milk will work just as well.
Granulated & Light Brown Sugar - Many refined sugars are processed with bone char to take on a bright white color. So if you'd like to make sure whether it's vegan-friendly, (in the U.S.) the sugar will definitely be vegan if it's labeled organic, “unrefined”, or made from beets. Similarly, brown sugar is made up of molasses (vegan) and white sugar. If the white sugar used to make it is refined cane sugar, then it may not be vegan.
All-Purpose Flour - I use King Arthur's AP flour which has 11.7% protein but any AP flour brand would work. For a lighter crumb, you may also use cake flour.
Cornstarch - A bit of cornstarch helps with binding, a necessity for vegan recipes where you don't want too much gluten development from flour.
🍌 How to Ripen Bananas for Banana Bread
Want banana bread asap, but all that the grocery store has are green bananas? You can easily speed up the ripening process:
- If you got a hand (cluster) of bananas, pull them apart so you have unpeeled, individual bananas (called fingers).
- Place each banana into a brown bag and store it on the counter overnight. This process increases ethylene production and more of the starches are converted to sugar.
- If the bananas are spotty but still not quite overripe at this point, place them, unpeeled, onto a baking sheet and bake at 300F for about 20 minutes until they are brown all over. Let them cool down before adding the mash to the batter.
❗️ I almost never run into this problem though, because there are always a couple of unpeeled, overripe bananas in our freezer. Thawed bananas also have more broken-down cell structures where almost all the flavor compounds have been released.
You can simply let the frozen bananas thaw on the counter for about half an hour to 1 hour, peel them, and place them into the wet ingredients bowl for mashing. There will be some excess liquid, don't throw it away as it will have lots of flavor. You can even boil this excess liquid down, reducing it to half the volume, for a more intense flavor and a slightly less moist loaf.
This takes a bit of planning if you want to try this recipe right away, but it's so easy once you get in the habit.
🥣 Step-by-Step Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325F and line a 9x5-inch loaf pan with parchment paper. I like to place the parchment paper so that it overhangs on the longer sides by a few inches. This makes removal much easier.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
- In a large bowl, whisk the melted vegan butter with the white and brown sugars until pasty. This takes a few minutes by hand, or you may use an electric mixer.
- Add in the mashed bananas, aquafaba, apple cider vinegar, vanilla extract, and soy milk. Thoroughly mix.
- Switching to a silicone spatula or wooden spoon, fold in the dry ingredients from the other bowl, stirring gently until barely combined. A few spots of flour are okay.
- Gently fold in the chocolate chips.
- Pour the batter into the lined loaf pan and spread out the top of the batter with an offset spatula or spoon. Sprinkle extra chocolate chips on top, if you prefer.
- Bake for 1 hour, then check with a toothpick. It should have a few moist crumbs. If it looks too wet, check at 5-minute increments until done. In my oven, it takes 1 hour and 15 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let the pan cool completely before removing the loaf.
- Store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.
- Enjoy with a cup of your favorite drink for breakfast or as a snack! Let me know how it went in the comments.
Here's a short video:
💭 Tips for Vegan Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
- Weigh your ingredients. Bananas will pretty much always vary in weight, and using too much or too little will not result in the same decadent crumb.
- If you don't own a kitchen scale, try to go by the look of the batter. You may need to add more flour (in 2-tablespoon increments), until the batter can hold a V shape on your spatula for a few seconds, like below—almost like choux pastry.
- Do not overmix the batter. Combine gently with a spatula until just mixed—a few spots of flour here and there are fine.
- Bring all ingredients to room temperature.
- Don't let the batter sit for too long before baking. You want the chemical reactions taking place in the oven and not before.
- Let the pan cool down completely after taking it out of the oven. With batter as hydrated as this, you would be risking the entire loaf to crumble apart otherwise. Believe me, I made this mistake too many times because of impatience... example in the FAQs below.
🌰 Variations
- If you don't prefer chocolate in your banana bread, leave them out completely for a plain loaf.
- If you want even more banana, place a halved banana as a topping. Note that this additional banana will reduce the time you can leave it out on the counter.
- Add a handful of chopped nuts to make your banana bread more nutritious and even more filling. Toasted walnut and hazelnut are my favorite.
- This recipe is specifically for moist banana bread, but if you're not a fan—increase the amount of flour by about ½ cup (60g). You will have a drier loaf that you can easily toast and spread butter onto.
- If you'd like to use less sugar, reduce the amount by up to 25%. Further decreasing sugar will likely result in less-than-ideal results since sugar does a lot more than simply sweetening your bakes.
- If you try this recipe with gluten-free flour, make sure to increase the amount by at least ½ cup (60g) for more binding.
❓FAQs
Check with a clean toothpick—it should have a few moist crumbs as it comes out. If it looks too wet, check at 5-minute increments until done.
With that said, temperature is the best indicator. Your finished temperature in the middle should be 205°F to 210°F. Here's a King Arthur article all about testing banana bread for doneness.
I haven't tried this recipe in a different pan, so I can't guarantee results. But a similar recipe suggests substituting with an 8×8 inch (20×20 cm) square baking pan and reducing the bake time.
If you don't let your baked goods cool in the pan for the indicated amount of time, you risk them falling apart. The cooling process is especially important for hydrated batters like moist banana bread. It is completing the baking process as it cools.
This is what impatience looks like...at least it still tasted excellent.
Because this banana bread is very hydrated and fluffy, I wouldn't recommend using a traditional toaster if you'd like a toasted slice. They are amazing after 2 minutes in the toaster oven, though!
Yes, microwave slices of banana bread in 30-second increments to desired temperature.
If your banana bread is really gummy, you probably overmixed the batter. Because overmixing batter results in longer gluten strands that leads to a gummy texture. You should only mix the batter until just combined, a few spots of flour are completely fine.
If you have too much moisture in your batter, you will end up with what professional bakers call a "wet log". The image below is from the testing stage where there were too many bananas.
Depending on the mix-ins you've used, banana bread can be left at room temperature for up to a few days in an airtight container, or tightly wrapped in cling wrap.
If you've topped your loaf with a fresh halved banana though, it will oxidize and turn brown very quickly on the counter.
Banana bread is usually not vegan as it often contains eggs, butter, and milk. This banana bread recipe is completely vegan without compromising any flavor though, thanks to a few simple substitutions like aquafaba, vegan butter, and soy/oat milk.
🧁 More Dessert Recipes
Make these other vegan delicacies from Aegean Delight:
Did you make this vegan chocolate chip banana bread recipe? I'd love to hear about it! Please comment and leave a star🌟 rating below. This helps me run Aegean Delight and I always appreciate it 🙂
Print📖 Recipe
Vegan Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
- Yield: 1 9x5" Loaf 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This is the BEST vegan chocolate chip banana bread. Intense banana flavor with a few simple tricks! Unbelievably moist and delicious, it takes less than 20 minutes to get in the oven...no mixer is necessary.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups (180g) all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons (15g) cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon (2g) baking soda
- 1 teaspoon (5g) baking powder
- ½ teaspoon (3g) table salt
- ½ cup (110g) vegan butter, melted
- packed ½ cup (100g) light brown sugar
- ½ cup (100g) sugar
- 3 medium (300g) super-ripe bananas, mashed (see notes)
- 3 tablespoons (45g) aquafaba
- 2 teaspoons (10g) apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon (5g) vanilla extract
- 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon (100g) soy or oat milk
- ¾ cup (140g) mini semi-sweet chocolate chips (or sub w/ chopped chocolate)
- optional: ⅓ cup extra chocolate chips for topping
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325F and line a 9x5-inch loaf pan with parchment paper. I like to place the parchment paper so that it overhangs on the longer sides by a few inches. This makes removal much easier.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
- In a large bowl, whisk the melted vegan butter with the white and brown sugars until pasty. This takes a few minutes by hand, or you may use an electric mixer.
- Add in the mashed bananas, aquafaba, apple cider vinegar, vanilla extract, and soy milk. Thoroughly mix.
- Switching to a silicone spatula or wooden spoon, fold in the dry ingredients from the other bowl, stirring gently until barely combined. A few spots of flour are okay.
- Gently fold in the chocolate chips.
- Immediately pour the batter into the lined loaf pan and spread out the top of the batter with an offset spatula or spoon. Sprinkle extra chocolate chips on top, if you prefer.
- Bake for 1 hour, then check with a toothpick. It should have a few moist crumbs. If it looks too wet, check at 5-minute increments until done. In my oven, it takes 1 hour and 15 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let the pan cool completely before removing and slicing the loaf.
- Store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.
- Enjoy with a cup of your favorite drink for breakfast or as a snack! Let me know how it went in the comments.
Notes
Bananas — You can easily speed up the ripening process by storing bananas in a brown bag on the counter overnight, then baking them (unpeeled) on a baking sheet at 300F for about 20 minutes until they are brown all over. Let them cool down before adding the mash to the batter.
Frozen Bananas — Frozen-and-thawed bananas have more broken-down cell structures where almost all the flavor compounds have been released. To use frozen bananas, simply let them thaw on the counter for about half an hour to 1 hour, peel them, and place them into the wet ingredients bowl for mashing. There will be some excess liquid, don't throw it away as it will have lots of flavor. Boil it down, reducing it to half its volume, for a more intense flavor without making the batter too wet.
Weigh Your Ingredients — Bananas will pretty much always vary in weight, and using too much or too little will not result in the same decadent crumb. Flour is also notoriously difficult to measure by volume correctly. If you don't own a kitchen scale, try to go by the look of the batter. You may need to add more flour (in 2-tablespoon increments), until the batter can hold a V shape on your spatula for a few seconds.
Fold Gently — Do not overmix the batter. Combine gently with a spatula until just mixed—a few spots of flour here and there are fine.
Let Cool — Let the pan cool down completely after taking it out of the oven. With batter as hydrated as this, you would be risking the entire loaf crumbling apart otherwise. Believe me, I made this mistake too many times because of impatience... example in the FAQs.
Varieties — If you don't prefer chocolate in your banana bread, leave them out completely for a plain loaf. If you want even more banana, place a halved banana as a topping. Note that this additional banana will reduce the time you can leave it out on the counter. Toasted walnut and hazelnut also work great as mix-ins.
Moisture — This recipe is specifically for moist banana bread, but if you're not a fan—increase the amount of flour by about ½ cup (60g). You will have a drier loaf that you can easily toast and spread butter onto.
Less Sugar — If you'd like to use less sugar, reduce the amount by up to 25%. Further decreasing sugar will likely result in less-than-ideal results since sugar does a lot more than simply sweetening your bakes.
GF — If you try this recipe with gluten-free flour, make sure to increase the amount by at least ½ cup (60g) for adequate binding.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Category: Breakfast, Dessert, Snack
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: Universal
Keywords: chocolate chip banana bread, vegan banana bread
This recipe was inspired by Butternut Bakery's Moist Chocolate Chip Banana Bread.
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