This vegan marble banana bread is moist, chewy, and decadent! Bonus: it’s made with healthy ingredients like oats, almonds, flax, coconut oil, and dark chocolate.
I have a thing about not keeping sweets in the house. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, but know myself enough to know that if there are cookies in the cupboard, I’ll start thinking about them and eventually saunter over to the kitchen to snack on one and end up having four. And if I’m going to eat sugar, I’d rather it come from a special homemade treat, or a favorite bakery.
A few weeks ago, I was home alone for the weekend and desperately craving something sweet. The craving haunted me for the whole two days and by Sunday night, I decided it was time to bake something.
One of the ways baking is different from cooking is that we typically only do it with the intention of sharing with others (or at least I do). But that weekend I realized how wrong I’ve been! Don’t be mistaken – baking is definitely a love language in my book, but we’re just as worthy of our own love (and our own baked goods!) as anyone else.
That night, pulling together the ingredients for this marble banana bread, whisking and folding them just so, and patiently waiting the 45 minutes for them to be transformed in the oven, was a therapeutic exercise. Just like carving out time for a bath or splurging on a fancy manicure, baking for oneself is an act of self-love – one I plan on indulging in more regularly.
This marble banana bread is the perfect treat for when you can’t decide between banana bread and something decadently chocolaty because it’s the perfect marriage of both!
Rolled oats in the batter give this cake a chewy bite and add some fiber (which slows sugar absorption into your blood steam, which is especially great when it comes to dessert). The chocolate layer of this marble banana bread has both cocoa powder and chocolate chips, so chocolate lovers will be doubly pleased. And sliced almonds are responsible for the surprising bits of crunch.
Marble Banana Bread
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 45 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 8 slices 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
This vegan marble banana bread is moist, chewy, and decadent! Made with delicious healthy ingredients like oats, almonds, coconut oil, and dark chocolate.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons flaxseed meal (ground flaxseeds)
- 6 tablespoons water
- 1 ¼ cups whole wheat pastry flour (all-purpose also OK)
- ¼ cup rolled oats
- ¼ cup sliced almonds
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon fine salt
- 3 very ripe bananas
- ⅓ cup organic raw sugar
- ⅓ cup unsweetened non-dairy milk
- ⅓ cup melted unrefined coconut oil, plus more for greasing the pan
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup dark chocolate chips
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
- In a small bowl, stir together the flax and water, and let stand while you prep the rest of the ingredients. It should thicken within 5 to 10 minutes – this mixture is known as a “flax egg”.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, almonds, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In a separate large bowl, mash the bananas with a fork until smooth. Add the sugar, milk, oil, vanilla, and the flax mixture, and whisk to combine. Fold the banana mixture into the flour mixture, being careful not to over-mix.
- Return half of the batter to the empty bowl from the banana mixture. Add the chocolate chips and cocoa powder and fold just until combined.
- Lightly grease a standard-size loaf pan with coconut oil. Using a large spoon, layer alternating dollops of the beige batter and the chocolate batter into the loaf pan. (Don’t worry about smoothing the layers). Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with a few crumbs.
- Allow the bread to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove it from the pan and cool completely (or for as long as you can wait before digging in).
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 275
- Fiber: 4.6 g
- Protein: 4.2 g
Keywords: banana, banana bread, chocolate, vegan, almonds
