One Pot Vegan Banana Bread
What if I told you you can make banana bread that tastes SCRUMPTIOUS with half the amount of sugar, completely healthy ingredients AND not skimp out on taste? And no, I've yet to see a sighting of a flying pig.
As it happens, I was scouring around for cake recipes. Because I've decided to go vegan and I have a bit of a sweet tooth I decided the cake had to be egg-less and without dairy or dairy substitutes. Let's be honest after tasting the real deal almond milk pales in comparison, even if it's home-made almond milk. Yep, been there, done that, bought the t-shirt.
As Amma (translation: mum) is allergic to egg, there are a few newspaper clippings around of recipes that are completely vegetarian i.e. recipes that have no eggs. So, using that as a base I decided to get a wee bit creative. But... not too creative that I end up spending hours in the kitchen cooking up a veritable storm (as fun as that may be).
So, here it is, the little secret to success that I found to be the key to reducing the amount of sugar used in this recipe....
Roasting the bananas.
Yes, it's genius and I don't know why it took me this long to figure it out.
Back to the point of not wanting to be too creative, I wanted a quick method of roasting without spending too much time on it. That's where the oven comes in handy.
Pop the bananas in the oven, with their skin on, for 15 minutes at 160deg and out pops deliciousness that smells like Ethakka appam (translation: plantain - fry snack).
In Kerala, there's a plantain fry that's battered, deep fried and washed down with masala tea for afternoon tea. It's the bomb especially when my Valliammachhi (translation: paternal grandma/ directly translated: big mother) makes it. It's basically deep fried deliciousness that I'd like to attribute to my weight gain whenever I'm back at Valliammachhi's. I'll see if I can make that at some point. Who's down for tea at mine??
Here's the banana bread, all packed and ready for the banana love to be shared.
It's beautiful. It's light, fluffy and sweet without an ounce of egg! Amma was a fan. Let's just say it didn't last very long.
To those I gave the banana bread away to, they were keen to know the recipe and finally, here it is! If you do make this banana bread don't forget to tag us @AyurFit #GoCocoNuts would love to see your pics!!
One Pot Vegan Banana Bread
Serves: 6
Conversion: 250ml = 1 cup
INGREDIENTS
3 Medium Bananas (Baked in skin for 15 minutes @ 160°C)
125 ml Brown Sugar/ Coconut Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/4 tsp Cinnamon Powder
1/8 tsp Nutmeg Powder
180 g Whole Wheat Flour
1 & 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
Pinch of Salt (optional)
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 180°C
2. In one large bowl, slice the bananas, combine sugar and all the ingredients until the nutmeg powder (from list above). Mix well.
3. Sieve in flour with baking soda, powder and salt into the large bowl with the bananas, fold the flour into the mixture well. Pour into a greased 8*4*2 inch pan and bake for 30 - 40 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out mostly clean.
4. Cool the cake, slice and serve!
