For most of the time I have been here in Tanzania I have not had an oven. Now that I have a small counter top convection oven I’ve been enjoying being able to do some vegan baking. This sugar-free vegan banana bread is an adaption of the recipe my neighbor Mama Elinuru uses. Over the past few months I have arranged for groups of diasporans or repatriates to visit her in her beautiful organic garden to learn about the natural healing properties of the local plants. She ends her classes with a tasting of many traditional foods. She updated her usual banana bread recipe to fit the needs of the vegans in the group. I have adapted it a bit more to fit my style. Here is that recipe.
Mama Elinuru a.k.a. Mama Shujaa wa Chakula (Mama Food Hero) sharing her wisdom.
I have been experimenting with this recipe over the last few weeks. This time I used a combination of sweet potato flour, regular flour and quick oats. You can use any combination of flours that you enjoy that fits your dietary needs. I used olive oil because that’s what I have easily available. You can use vegan butter, walnut oil, etc as you prefer. You can also add a variety of add-ins such as raisins, dried cranberries, walnuts, sunflower seeds or flax seeds. I also decided to try chocolate banana bread. For the chocolate version I think next time I will try adding vegan chocolate chips or dark chocolate chunks.
Use very ripe bananas that are very soft. This is when they are the sweetest. The skin will have many black spots or even be mostly black. You might not want to just eat them this way but they are perfect for baking.
If you do some experimenting with this recipe be sure to leave a comment and let me know what you did and how it turned out.
- 4 ripe bananas
- 2 tsp cardamon powder
- 2 tsp cinnamon powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbl oil or vegan butter
- 1 ½ cusps flour
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp baking powder
- pinch of salt
- ¼-⅓ cup raisins, nuts or other add-in
- ½ cup cocoa powder (add with dry ingredients)
- ¼ cup chocolate chips
- Mash banana with a fork or masher until smooth (some lumps are ok)
- Add vanilla, oil and spices and mix well
- Set aside
- Mix dry ingredients (including chocolate if using) in a separate bowl
- Add to wet ingredients and mix
- Add any add-ins such as raisins and nuts
- Mix only until well combined
- Do not over mix or your bread will be tough
- Put batter into parchment paper lined loaf pan or lightly oiled or silicone muffin cups
- Bake at 350º F or 176º C for 20-50 minutes depending on the size of your pan/muffins
- Test for doneness by sticking a toothpick into the center of bread/muffin. It is done when there is no wet batter on the toothpick when you pull it out.
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