Vegan banana bread: Madeleine Shaw’s healthy banana bread with peanut butter recipe

This vegan banana bread is a great healthy bake when you want a treat for breakfast that's still good for you. Plus, it's great with a mid morning cuppa too!

As well as being vegan, this healthy banana bread recipe is gluten-free too. So, you can have it if you follow a dairy-free diet - just make sure the chocolate you use is vegan-friendly.

To make this healthy vegan banana bread, you'll need about 10 mins to prep and then all you have to do is pop it in the oven. It will need to cook for 50 mins, or until the loaf is cooked through and golden on top.

There's nothing better than trying a slice of banana bread while it's still warm - just make sure it's cooled down a bit after it comes out of the oven before you slice it up and serve.

This healthy recipe for vegan banana bread makes one medium loaf, which will serve about six people.

Madeleine says: 'We all love banana loaf but I’ve taken this up a notch by adding peanut butter. Oh yes, bananas are a great source of energy, but did you know they can also help you to sleep? Whenever I want a really good night’s sleep I’ll munch on this loaf because bananas contain trytophan, an amino acid that helps the body to produce serotonin. It calms and relaxes you, which is essential for glowing skin!'

So if you're looking for a delicious gluten free or vegan banana bread, this recipe is just the thing.

Ingredients

• coconut oil, for greasing (optional)
• 80ml maple syrup
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed
• 100g coconut oil, melted
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 80g coconut sugar
• 200g spelt flour or gluten-free flour
• 1tbsp chia seeds
• 1tsp baking powder
• ½tsp bicarbonate of soda
• pinch of salt
• 150g good-quality dark chocolate, chopped into small chunks or chips
• 125g peanut butter or almond butter

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170C. Grease a loaf tin with coconut oil or line with baking paper.
2. Put the maple syrup, mashed banana, coconut oil, vanilla and sugar in a large bowl and mix well. In another bowl, stir together the flour, chia seeds, baking powder, bicarb and salt. Tip the flour mixture into the wet mixture in the first bowl and stir together well.
3. Pour a quarter of the batter into the prepared loaf tin, then sprinkle a quarter of the chocolate chips over and dot a quarter of the nut butter on top in teaspoons. Repeat this layering with the rest of the mixture.
4. Bake in the oven for 50 minutes until just cooked through and golden on top. You want this cake to be moist. Remove from the loaf tin and leave to cool on a wire rack, then slice and enjoy.