Vegan Chocolate Banana Bread, a delicious, nutritious lunchbox staple in this house. Full of crunchy seeds, soft dried fruits and chunks of dark chocolate. This quick & easy one bowl recipe keeps well in an airtight tin and can be frozen in slices. Dairy Free, Nut Free and can be made Gluten Free by using a suitable flour.
Preheat the oven to 180C and grease or line a loaf tin.
In a small bowl, mash a ripe banana until smooth and scrape into a large mixing bowl.
To the mixing bowl add the cocoa powder, vegetable (or melted coconut) oil and sugar. Stir together until smooth and combined.
Fold in the flour, oats and any or all of the optional ingredients while slowly stirring in the coffee.
Once the flour is completely folded in, pour into a loaf tin and top with the banana slices, banana chips or pearl sugar.
Bake on a middle shelf for 45mins or until a skewer comes out clean. Tip out of the loaf tin and leave to cool.
If you are freezing for lunches through the week, then slice once cool and wrap each individual slice in greaseproof paper or cling film. It will however keep for around a week as a whole loaf in an airtight tin.
Notes
*Coffee - 1tsp instant decaff coffee granules plus 100ml water and 100ml of your choice of milk.** I use 1tbsp of chia, 2tsbp of pumpkin & 2tbsp of sunflower seeds. This loaf would be really lovely with the crunch of hazelnuts or pecan nuts if not being used for school lunchboxes. Simply replace the seeds with chopped nuts of your choice.