DoMatcha Vegan Banana Bread
March 03, 2021
There’s a time and a place for keeping things simple. We love baking a delicious, healthy treat like the classic banana bread – with a matcha twist!
By using a mix with a dense, nutritious flour as well as extra nourishing ingredients like ground flaxseed, walnuts, and bananas, as well as a sweetener such as maple syrup with a slightly lower glycemic index than regular sugar, this healthy matcha banana bread can be enjoyed at breakfast or as a sweet snack any time of day!
We like to keep our matcha-infused treats vegan; dairy can interfere with the absorption of the beneficial antioxidants called catechins in matcha, so to get everything you can out of your matcha culinary explorations, keep it dairy-free!
You could also easily make this recipe gluten-free by substituting in your favorite gluten-free baking flour and by using a different dairy-free milk like soy or coconut milk. You could also omit the walnuts for a nut-free recipe.
Ingredients:
Wet:
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 2 very ripe bananas
- 3/4 cup oat milk (or other dairy-free milk like soy or coconut)
- ¼ cup coconut oil
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
Dry:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup buckwheat or spelt flour (or another dense or whole wheat flour)
- 2 tbsp ground flaxseed
- 2/3 cup organic cane sugar or coconut sugar
- 1 tablespoon of DōMatcha® Organic Culinary matcha or Summer Harvest matcha
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
- Dash of Himalayan pink salt or sea salt
Extra ingredients:
- 1 cup chopped toasted organic walnuts
- Optional: ¾ cup dairy-free Fair Trade chocolate chips
- Toppings - around 10 whole toasted organic walnuts or banana slices
Prep: Have 2 mixing bowls ready to go. Preheat the oven to 350°F / 180°C degrees. Use an extra tsp or so of coconut oil to grease a loaf pan – additionally, you can also line with unbleached parchment paper.
Directions:
Mash the ripe bananas – you can do this with a fork in a small bowl, but the easiest option is to use a handheld mixer to mash them directly in the mixing bowl before adding other ingredients. In the smaller mixing bowl, combine the mashed bananas with the oat milk, coconut oil, vanilla extract, and maple syrup. If you don’t have a handheld or stand mixer, you can mix this recipe by hand.
In a larger, separate mixing bowl, add all the dry ingredients (except for the walnuts and/or chocolate chips) and mix until well-combined.
Pour the combined wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients and mix gently, just so that the ingredients are combined. Don't beat the batter for too long. Once the ingredients are combined, then add the chopped walnuts and/or chocolate chips.
Once everything is mixed together, add the combined ingredients to the greased loaf pan. Give it a gentle shake to settle the batter into the corners. Once the batter is settled in the pan, gently add the whole walnuts or banana slices to the top of the loaf to decorate it.
Bake for around 45-55 minutes – this can vary oven to oven. Begin checking the loaf’s readiness at 45 minutes by inserting a toothpick into the top of the loaf near the middle and seeing if it comes out with liquid batter or not.
Once the loaf is baked all the way through and the toothpick comes out clean, let it cool for about 30 minutes on a cooling rack before cutting into it - despite temptation!
You can share the whole loaf immediately, but if you have leftovers, you can store them covered in a refrigerator for up to 5 days, or keep for later in your freezer for up to 3 months!