This Vegan Banana Bread is an easy 1-bowl recipe with an ultra-moist texture, delicious cinnamon flavor, and crunchy walnuts. It’s also a healthy, low-sugar banana bread with only 4.7 grams of sugar per slice and made with healthy unrefined sugar!
We have so many vegan banana bread recipes: Chickpea Flour Banana Bread, Vegan Gluten-Free Banana Bread, and so many others but never the classic vegan banana bread! Keep reading to learn how to make an ultra-moist low-sugar vegan banana bread recipe.
Classic Banana Bread loaves from the shop or the bakery are not vegan since they contain eggs, milk, and sometimes butter. So if you want a simple and plant-based version, the best way is to make my recipe below!
Plus, did you know that regular banana bread contains 19 grams of sugar per slice? And most of the sugar comes from added sugar, not from the bananas. So here’s a low-sugar banana bread recipe for you to enjoy and start the year healthy!
Ingredients and Substitutions
To make this one-bowl banana bread recipe, you need the following:
- Ripe Bananas – Find bananas with black spots on their skin. The ripest, the sweetness the banana bread will be without adding tons of sugar. That’s the trick to making a low-sugar banana bread recipe.
- All-Purpose Flour or white whole wheat pastry flour or spelt flour – this recipe doesn’t work with oat flour or almond flour. Try my vegan oat banana bread if you want to use other flour. Learn how to measure flour.
- Coconut Sugar – This recipe uses coconut sugar as a sweetener. It’s a low-GI unrefined sugar with nutritious properties, but it also adds a lovely nutty caramel flavor to the banana bread. Plus, this recipe uses 3 times less added sugar than a regular banana bread recipe to keep the recipe healthy and good for you.
- Light Olive Oil – Any vegetable oil works in this recipe, like melted coconut oil or melted vegan butter too, but olive oil is low in saturated fat and better for you, so it’s my favorite choice to make banana bread.
- Baking Powder and Baking Soda – To give them the perfect fluffy texture.
- Ground Cinnamon – for flavor.
- Vanilla Extract – for flavor.
- Chopped Nuts – You can use walnuts, pecans, or a combination of both. I recommend finely chopping the nuts before adding them to the bread. You can also roast the nuts for extra flavors.
Allergy Swaps
Below are some ingredients substitutions ideas for you if needed.
- Gluten-Free – You should have great results using a gluten-free flour blend containing added gum
- Sugar-Free – Skip the sweetener!
- Oil-Free – I don’t recommend skipping oil because the texture comes out very dense and gummy. However, if you really need to try unsweetened apple sauce or more mashed banana.
How To Make Vegan Banana Bread
There are plenty of ways to make egg-free banana bread that is vegan-friendly. This recipe is the easiest vegan banana bread recipe, with no need for flax eggs or fancy ingredients.
You can make it with oat flour, like in my vegan, gluten-free banana bread recipe, use chickpea flour or simply use the most basic pantry ingredients below. The success of any banana bread recipe is the amount of banana added! If you measure the mashed bananas roughly, you are sure to have too moist or too dry banana bread.
- First, mash the bananas very well until smooth and runny – removing the lumps creates a super moist banana bread crumb!
- Then, use measuring cups to measure exactly the amount you need in the recipe.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and ground cinnamon. Set it aside.
- Now, stir in oil, vanilla extract, coconut sugar, and salt with the mashed bananas. When well combined, stir in the dry ingredients until you get a smooth, consistent thick banana bread batter.
- Fold the 1/2 cup of chopped nuts at the end or some extra chocolate chips, if desired. This is totally optional and up to your taste.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a 9-inch x 5-inch loaf pan with parchment paper and lightly oil the paper with coconut oil. Set aside.
- Bake the banana bread in the center rack of the oven for about 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- To prevent the top of the banana bread from darkening too fast, tent the pan with a piece of foil after 30-40 minutes of baking.
- Remove the loaf pan from the oven, and using the hanging piece of parchment paper, pull out the banana bread from the pan.
- Cool down on a cooling rack for about 2 hours or until the banana bread reaches room temperature.
Storage Instructions
Slice the banana bread just before serving. This keeps the remaining banana bread ultra-moist. You can store banana bread in the fridge for up to 5 days. I recommend storing the bread in a sealed box or on a plate covered with a towel to keep it fresh and moist. You can pop the banana bread whole or sliced, in the freezer, using plastic wrap to seal it from air. Then, thaw it at room temperature the day before.
Serving
This egg-free, dairy-free banana bread is absolutely delicious on its own as a healthy vegan breakfast or afternoon snack with hot chocolate or coffee. But you can also top up your slice with delicious plant-based protein like:
- Peanut butter
- Almond butter
- Cashew butter
- Sunflower seed butter
- Hemp butter
- Pinch of hemp seeds
- Baby jam
Frequently Asked Questions
Below I listed some answers to your most common question. You can also comment below to ask me anything.
Yes, you can entirely skip the added sugar in this recipe resulting in no-sugar-added banana bread. Bananas are already high in fructose, and if yours are ripe, the added sugar is not necessary.
Some readers reported success in replacing the oil with unsweetened apple sauce.
You can also use my chickpea flour banana bread recipe, that’s a 100% oil-free vegan, gluten-free banana bread recipe.
Yes, you can bake this recipe into a grease 12 hole muffin tin for 30-35 minutes.
I didn’t try maple syrup or agave syrup in this recipe, but it should work up to 1/4 cup.
However, I noticed that liquid sweeteners make the bread denser and sometimes gummy at the bottom, so it’s preferable to use granulated sugar like coconut sugar, brown sugar, or unrefined cane sugar.
This happens if you add too much flour or your mashed bananas are not liquid enough. Feel free to add up to 1/4 cup of almond milk to make the batter thinner.
You can replace all-purpose flour with an all-purpose gluten-free flour blend containing gums. Pick one where the package states it’s a 1:1 ratio replacement.
If you added too much flour the cake or bread comes out dry. Always fill the measuring cup lightly without pressing or packing flour in the cup. Sweep the top to remove excess.
If your banana bread is too wet, add a piece of foil on top of the loaf pan, and keep baking at a lower temperature until the center dries out. Then, when the banana bread is fully cooled, slice and toast in a bread toaster or toaster oven.
More Vegan Banana Bread Recipes
I have a passion for vegan recipes using ripe bananas, but especially for banana bread. Below are my most popular plant-based banana bread recipes for you to try. All are low-sugar and healthy.
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Vegan Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup Mashed Banana - equivalent 4 large riped bananas, black spots on the skin
- ¼ cup Coconut Sugar - or any granulated sugar you like
- ⅓ cup Light Olive Oil - or canola oil
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 1 ½ cup All-Purpose Flour - or white wholewheat flour
- 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
- ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- 2 teaspoons Cinnamon
Optional
- ½ cup Chopped Walnuts - or Pecan
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a 9-inch x 5-inch loaf pan with parchment paper. Slightly oil the paper and pan with oil spray or coconut oil. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, mash the ripe bananas with a potato masher or a fork or the paddle attachment of your stand mixer. Mash until almost no lumps show, it must be very runny for an ultra-moist texture. Measure 1 cup + 1/2 cup of mashed bananas – if extra, freeze for later.
- Stir the olive oil, vanilla extract, coconut sugar, and salt with the mashed bananas until well combined.
- In another bowl, stir flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon.
- Fold in the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula until the batter is consistent.
- Fold in chopped nuts if desired.
- Transfer the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake in the center rack of the oven until a pick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean – about 50 – 55 minutes. You can add a piece of foil on top of the pan after 30 minutes to prevent the banana bread from browning too fast.
- Cool down on a wire rack for 2 hours before slicing.
Storage
- Store at room temperature for up to 3 days or up to 5 days in the fridge in a sealed container. It can be frozen and thaw the day before at room temperature.
love making this for my daughter with egg allergy. It tastes great!
I’m eager to try this but have no loaf pan. Can I make it as muffins instead and just adjust the cooking time?
Yes usually bread recipe can be baked as muffins for less longer – I would say test the baking process after 25 minutes inserting a pick in the center of the muffins. If it’s stick to the pick keep baking and check every 5-10 minutes until cooked through. Enjoy!
Recipe looks amazing! Any suggestions if I want to avoid any type of sweetners added with the exception of added purees (like applesauce or pumpkin)? Thanks!
Simply skip the sweetener, the bread comes out well without! The taste won’t be as sweet but it won’t impact the texture too much. Or replace the coconut sugar by 1/4 cup of apple puree! Enjoy!
Thank you I was thinking of adding my home made apple sauce.
HEY MISS C…I can hardly wait to try this Banana Bread recipe…but I would like to know what kind of sauce you have poured on the slice of Banana Bread in the photo…I couldn’t find anything about the sauce…Kindest Regards…Jim
I added natural peanut butter and a drizzle of maple syrup!