The Best Vegan Banana Bread (2024)

The perfect vegan banana bread, with no egg replacements. With perfectly caramelised edges, a soft, moist interior, and chock full of chocolate chips and toasted pecans – it truly doesn’t get much better than this.

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I’ve been allovertheplace lately. Mixing up days and dates and battling with scary mile-long to-do lists. I’m 98% sure today is Thursday, but then again, I did wake up yesterday, thinking it’s Friday.

I’m sure we’ve all been there – in that busy-busy-busy state, running around like headless chickens and panicking for some random, pointless reason or other.

So… let’s take a deep breath. Relax for a bit. Put on some music, crazy-dance around the kitchen, make this vegan banana bread. Enjoy the smell of caramelising bananas, toasted pecans and cinnamon, swirling tantalisingly through the kitchen.

Like most banana breads, this vegan one is all about comfort and warmth. While there’s no eggs, milk or butter in it, there’s also no alien-sounding egg replacements. There’s just a whole lotta flavour, just the right amount of sweetness, and a few handfuls of chocolate chips.

Because, as you might know by now, round these parts we measure chocolate chips (and chocolate in general) with our hearts in measures of infinity, rather than cups and grams and tablespoons.

Before we get to the bits and bobs of making this wonderful banana bread – if you like what you’re seeing, subscribe to my newsletter to keep up to date on the latest recipes and tips!

How do you make vegan banana bread?

The ingredients for this vegan banana bread are the usual suspects, and you probably have all of them in your pantry already (for the full recipe, including the ingredient quantities, scroll down to the bottom of this page):

• mashed ripe bananas
• a dash of lemon juice
• light brown sugar
• vegetable or sunflower oil
• vanilla paste (or vanilla extract)
• plain all-purpose flour
• almond flour
• baking powder
• baking soda
• a pinch of salt
• cinnamon
• nutmeg
• chopped toasted pecans
• chocolate chips… lots and lots of them

To make the vegan banana bread:

1. Mix the wet ingredients (mashed bananas, lemon juice, sugar, oil and vanilla) together.
2. Sift in the dry ingredients (all-purpose flour, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices), and mix well until you get a smooth batter.
3. Fold in most of the chopped pecans and chocolate chips.
4. Transfer the batter into a lined loaf tin, smooth out the top, and sprinkle with the remaining pecans and chocolate chips.
5. Bake.
6. Try to wait for the banana bread to cool down, then promptly lose patience and cut yourself a VERY GENEROUS slice of the still slightly warm banana bread.
7. Enjoy the magic that are caramelised edges and melty chocolate chips and crunchy toasted pecans.

How long do you bake banana bread?

Because the banana bread is baked in a loaf tin, the layer of batter is much thicker than for instance in a layer cake. Consequently, vegan banana bread needs to bake longer – I’ve baked mine at 355 ºF (180 ºC) for about 1 hour, and it came out of the oven perfectly baked.

Because of the longer baking time, as well as the sugar content (from both the bananas and the light brown sugar), the banana bread starts browning fairly quickly. To slow down the browning of the top, I recommend covering the banana bread with aluminium foil, shiny side up, about 20 – 25 minutes into baking (or once the top reaches a deep golden brown colour).

This will allow the interior of the banana bread to bake fully without the top being unpleasantly burnt. As always, it’s best to check the doneness of the banana bread by inserting a toothpick/skewer into the middle – when it comes out clean or with a few stray crumbs attached, you know the vegan banana bread is done.

Does vegan banana bread require egg replacements?

In my vegan recipes, I don’t use egg replacements (think flax eggs, chia eggs or similar). While I know that these egg replacements are fairly popular and that many successfully use them, my personal experience with them isn’t all that positive.

In my experience, these egg replacements give the bakes an unpleasant texture, sometimes bordering on dense and “gloopy”. What’s more – you don’t really *need* egg replacements to be a successful vegan baker.

I’ve made everything from vegan cakes to vegan cupcakes, from vegan brownies to vegan cookies (and now a vegan banana bread) – and all that without egg replacements. And all these desserts are delicious, with an amazing texture and appearance.

In short: no, you don’t need egg replacements to make this amazing vegan banana bread.

How do you keep banana bread moist?

Trust me when I say: this vegan banana bread needs NO HELP to stay moist and delicious. The 3 bananas in there take care of that all by themselves.

Just follow the recipe below, and you’ll get the moistest, most delicious vegan banana bread ever.

What are the best banana bread add-ins?

For the recipe below, I’ve chosen my favourite banana bread add-ins: toasted pecans and chocolate chips. However, the options are pretty much endless when it comes to banana bread add-ins:

• chopped nuts (peanuts, hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans)
• dried fruit (cranberries, raisins)
• chocolate (chopped or chips – dark, milk or white chocolate)
• fresh fruit (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, cherries, apples)
• nut butter or chocolate spread (swirled through the banana bread)
• cheesecake batter (also swirled through the banana bread)

… and many more.

But regardless how simple or complex you make your banana bread – it’s always going to be delicious.

Enjoy.

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