The BEST Vegan Banana Bread

This is seriously the BEST vegan banana bread recipe – and the best banana bread recipe in general. If you’re looking for a vegan banana bread that will have everyone’s jaws on the floor, this is it.

As an absolute fiend for banana bread, I’ve scoured the internet looking for the best possible loaf. Many late nights and extra-ripe bananas later, I found the greatest banana bread recipe of all time. And I don’t say GOAT lightly.

And the best vegan banana bread recipe is slightly adapted from a Huffington Post recipe from 2013, which feels like an internet relic. It has a craggy, crunchy top that shatters into a moist, banana-forward inside with melty pockets of chocolate. AND it’s incredibly easy to make and is ready to eat in under one hour.

If you’re looking for an easy vegan banana bread recipe that will make you never want to search the wild wild web for another banana bread again, this is it. It is truly the only banana bread recipe you’ll ever need.

Get ready for the BEST vegan banana bread.

The Best Easy Vegan Banana Bread

Banana bread is one of those really nostalgic baked goods that brings up fond food memories. Maybe about the banana bread making phase of quarantine that gave us some small comforts, maybe about your childhood, maybe about Trader Joe’s (they do have a good nanner bread mix).

For me, this vegan banana bread brings me me back to college, when I lived with seven other Division I rowers with insatiable appetites. That’s when I found this absolutely incredible vegan banana bread recipe from Huffington Post and made it constantly. My best friend and I would sneak down to the kitchen at night for a study break and to eat “second dinner” (let me reiterate – we were CONSTANTLY hungry).

We’d cut a slice of banana bread, heat it up and top it with a dollop of peanut butter and a small pour of milk. Sitting at the kitchen island, we’d eat and laugh at YouTube videos and try not to be too noisy for the rest of the house.

I would love to hear your favorite banana bread memories. Please let me know in the blog post comments!

OKAY, on to the recipe details!

Ingredients and substitutions

• All purpose flour. Flour is the ingredient I play with most in this recipe. If I’m looking to impress someone, I make this vegan banana bread with all-purpose flour, because that’s how the loaf gets its beautiful craggy, crunchy, golden brown crust. Usually though I make this loaf with all whole wheat flour or a combination of all purpose and whole wheat flour, and I add turbinado sugar on top to get the crunch (see “turbinado sugar” in this section for more deats). You can really use any type of flour you like, including gluten free flour (I love Cup4Cup gf flour).

• Baking powder. We need baking powder to help the loaf to rise, especially since this is an eggless banana bread. We don’t need other egg substitutes like a flax egg in here, just baking powder and baking soda.

• Baking soda. Same as above!

• Salt. You always need some salt to balance and bring out sweetness.

• Large, overripe bananas. You want at least spotty bananas. The riper and browner the banana, the sweeter it is, and we need super ripe bananas to add that sweetness to this recipe!

• Half a lemon, or bottled lemon juice. Lemon juice is one of the secret ingredients in this recipe. Because lemon is an acid, it helps super-activate the baking soda to give this vegan banana bread a lot of rise without using eggs. Lemon also bolsters the flavor of the whole loaf.

• Vanilla extract. Vanilla extract adds great flavor to the banana bread.

• Oil. You can use vegetable oil / canola oil, melted coconut oil, or melted butter if you don’t need the banana bread to be vegan. I would not use olive oil, since it adds a strong flavor to the loaf.

• White sugar / granulated sugar. We use a little bit of granulated sugar to sweeten the loaf and help give it its craggy top. You can substitute coconut sugar if you’d like. Do not substitute in a liquid sugar, like maple syrup or honey.

• Chocolate bar or chocolate chips. I prefer chopping up a chocolate bar to get melty pools of chocolate in the loaf, since chocolate chips have stabilizers that help them keep their shape. If you want to keep this a completely vegan banana bread, you can get a vegan chocolate bar or vegan chocolate chips – I like Hu and Super Major.

• Turbinado sugar (optional). Sometimes I’ll top my loaf with a sprinkle of coarse turbinado sugar. It’s caramelizes into the top of the loaf as it bakes, giving the loaf an extra sweet crunch on top.

How to make the best vegan banana bread

This vegan banana bread is simple and quick to make. First, you’ll preheat the oven to 375°F and line a standard loaf pan with parchment paper.

Next you’ll prep your dry ingredients and your wet ingredients in separate bowls. For your dry ingredients, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.

For the wet ingredients, mash the bananas in a large mixing bowl, leaving some larger chunks (they caramelize beautifully into the banana bread). Mix in the lemon juice, vanilla extract, oil and granulated sugar.

Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. When the flour is mostly incorporated, fold in the chopped chocolate or chocolate chips, reserving some to sprinkle on top of the loaf before baking. Pour into the prepared loaf pan, top with the remaining chocolate and turbinado sugar if you’d like.

Bake for 40-50 minutes, until the top is golden brown and a knife in the middle comes out clean or with a few crumbs attached, but not raw batter. Let cool, slice and enjoy!

Tips for making the best vegan banana bread

• Use very ripe bananas. Bananas that are nice and brown, or at least spotty, are the best for baking because they’re at their sweetest.

• Properly measure your flour. Too much flour in banana bread can make the loaf tough and bready. Too little flour and the loaf won’t be able to hold itself up. Here are two options for measuring your flour properly!
  • Measure by weight: I always use a kitchen scale to measure my ingredients and include the measurements in grams in the recipe so you can, too. You can get a pretty cheap scale on Amazon (I used a $12 scale for years and now use a $28 KitchenAid scale).
  • Measure by volume: If you’re using a cup measure instead of a scale, first fluff the flour in its bag, then use a spoon to place it into your measuring cup. Level the flour off by scraping the flat edge of a knife across the top of the cup measure.

• Don’t over-mix the batter once you’ve added the dry ingredients. Fold in the dry ingredients just until combined. When you over-mix, you strengthen the gluten in the flour, which we want to do for a traditional bread, but when we’re making quick breads like banana bread it will make the loaf tough instead of tender.

• Bake for just the right amount of time. Overbaking = a dry loaf! The vegan banana bread is ready when the top is golden brown and a knife stuck in the middle comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs attached, but not raw batter.

• Try other add-ins. Walnuts, a swirl of Nutella, m&ms, have fun with it!

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

More Delicious Recipes

• If you love bananas (me too!), check out super easy campfire-style banana boats.

• If you’re looking for breakfast recipes, try sweet potato superhero muffins or pumpkin crumb muffins.

• If you want delicious dessert recipes, try brown butter blondies, the best salted brown butter chocolate chip cookies, or almond frangipane blondies.