Vegan (dairy free) banana bread loaf recipe with light cake-like sponge and a crunchy brown sugar crust on top

Before this bloody pandemic and us all being sentenced to life in lockdown (or at least so it seems), I had made epic leaps and bounds towards making my diet waaaaay more plant-based and veggie. A vegan or full-time vegetarian by no means (except when I did my Pledge to Veg challenge for Cancer Research UK) but certainly not the raging carnivore I have morphed into in quarantine. I plan to resume my voyage to becoming more veggie biased once normality resumes and convenience isn’t quite so key but for now, here’s a token effort with the best vegan banana bread recipe I have devoured thus far. No eggs, no milk, no butter but still fluffy AF, lighted spiced and plain delicious.

(Makes one loaf with about 8 slices)

3 very ripe bananas
100g brown sugar
75ml vegetable or sunflower oil
3 tsp baking powder
225g plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Preheat your oven to 200° (fan).
Line a loaf tin with baking parchment or grease with butter.
Mash your bananas in a bowl.
Mix brown sugar and oil into mashed bananas.
In a separate bowl, put all of your dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg) and use a fork to combine.
Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well to form your batter (fold don’t stir so as not to make the cake too dense).
Pour into your loaf tin and sprinkle with about a tablespoon of brown sugar, evenly over the top.
Bake for around 20-30 minutes (or until it’s golden on top and a skewer or clean knife stuck through the centre comes out dry).
Leave to cool a bit then slice yourself a great big slab while it’s still warm and enjoy with some fresh berries on the side. Uh-mazing.

Top tip: If you don’t think it is cooked all the way through yet but the top is looking very toasty, just cover it will some kitchen foil for the remainder of the cooking time to prevent it burning.

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This sh*t is b-a-n-a-n-a-s…

Still got loads more speckled ‘nanas that need a new lease of life? Peel ’em, mash ’em and use them to make my Biscoff & Banana Blondies With Cookie Dough Base.

They are an absolute taste sensation and perfectly fabulous without the cookie dough base too (if you wanted to make them a little less ‘slutty’ or cba making cookie dough).