The best vegan chocolate banana bread is moist, rich, and double chocolate! Perfect for a decadent breakfast or dessert.
This vegan chocolate banana bread is so rich and decadent.
It’s really double chocolate banana bread if you want to put a finer point on it. It has cocoa powder in the batter and then heaps of chocolate chips as well, so yes, double chocolate!
The recipe is adapted from our vegan banana bread recipe and we just needed a few changes to that recipe to create pure chocolate bliss.
How To Make Vegan Chocolate Banana Bread
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- Sift all purpose flour and cocoa powder into a mixing bowl. Add white granulated sugar, light brown sugar, baking powder and salt and mix together.
- Add bananas, soy milk and coconut oil to the blender jug and blend until smooth.
- Prepare a flax egg by mixing 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed with 3 tablespoons of hot water. Let it sit for a minute to become gloopy.
- Add the blended banana mix and flax egg to the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl and mix into a thick batter.
- Add vegan chocolate chips.
- Fold them into the batter.
- Transfer the batter to a 9×5 loaf pan (sprayed with non-stick spray and lined with parchment paper so that there is overhang on either side) and smooth down.
- Add extra chocolate chips on top.
- Bake for 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (melted chocolate is okay but wet batter is not).
- Use the parchment paper overhang to lift the banana bread out of the loaf pan and place it onto a wire cooling rack to cool before slicing and serving.
Ingredient Notes & Substitutions
Ripe bananas – if your bananas aren’t ripe then they are more starch than sugar, and we want them to be more sugar than starch, which means they must be ripe. Ripe bananas are yellow everywhere (no green) and spotty.
Soy milk – can be replaced with any non-dairy milk.
Coconut oil – can be replaced with another oil or even vegan butter.
Flax egg – this recipe uses a flax egg. A flax egg is just ground flaxseed mixed with hot water. It makes a great egg replacement, but it’s also just a healthy and delicious addition to banana bread.
Chocolate chips – a whole cup of vegan chocolate chips goes into this vegan chocolate banana bread. So it’s all melty and gooey and utterly delicious. You can also use chopped up bars of vegan chocolate.
Baker’s Tips
Weigh your flour for accuracy or measure it using the spoon and level method. You spoon the flour into the measuring cup and then level it off with a knife. You don’t scoop the flour.
Mash or blend. I like to blend the bananas with the soy milk and coconut oil. And then just pour the blended mix over the dry ingredients, add a flax egg and mix everything together. I find it saves time because you don’t need to melt the coconut oil and you don’t need to mash a bunch of bananas. If you don’t have a blender though, then you can absolutely mash the bananas with the coconut oil and do it that way instead.
Don’t overmix your batter. You only want to mix it enough to combine it properly. Of course you do want to combine it properly so don’t be scared to mix it, just don’t overdo it, like don’t use an electric mixer on this.
Cracks on the top are okay. If your banana bread has some cracks and craters on top (like mine does) this is totally okay! In fact I was reading something where the writer was saying, ‘if your banana bread doesn’t have cracks on the top then what are you even doing?’
Storing and Freezing
This banana bread is divine when fresh from the oven and still warm and on day 2 it is, if anything, even more divine!
Keep it tightly covered at room temperature where it will stay good for 3-4 days. It’s freezer friendly for up to 2 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge.
More Vegan Banana Recipes
- Vegan Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Vegan Banana Cake
- Vegan Banana Cupcakes
- Vegan Banoffee Pie
- Vegan Banana Cream Pie
- Vegan Banana Ice Cream
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Chocolate Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups All Purpose Flour (250g)
- ½ cup Cocoa Powder (42g) Unsweetened
- ½ cup White Granulated Sugar (100g)
- ½ cup Light Brown Sugar (100g)
- 3 teaspoons Baking Powder
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 1 ¾ cups Mashed Ripe Banana (393g)
- ½ cup Soy Milk (120ml)
- 3 Tablespoons Coconut Oil (45g)
- 1 Flax Egg 1 Tablespoon Ground Flaxseed Meal with 3 Tablespoons Hot Water
- 1 cup Vegan Chocolate Chips (175g) plus more to place directly on top before baking
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Spray a 9×5 loaf pan with non-stick spray and line it with parchment paper so that the parchment paper hangs over the sides, so that when the banana bread is baked, you can easily lift it out of the loaf pan using the parchment paper.
- Sift the flour and cocoa powder into a mixing bowl and then add the white and brown sugar, baking powder and salt and mix together.
- Add the bananas, soy milk and coconut oil to the blender and blend until just smooth.
- Prepare your flax egg by adding 3 Tbsp hot water to 1 Tbsp of ground flaxseed meal in a bowl and leaving for a minute to become gloopy.
- Pour the blended banana mix over the dry ingredients, add the flax egg and mix everything together until properly combined. The batter will be thick.
- Add the vegan chocolate chips and fold in.
- Transfer the batter from the mixing bowl to the loaf pan and smooth down with the back of a spoon.
- Add extra chocolate chips to the top.
- Bake for 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (melted chocolate is okay but wet batter is not).
- Use the parchment paper to lift the banana bread out of the loaf pan and place onto a wire cooling rack to cool before slicing.
Notes
- Measure the flour correctly either using the ‘spoon and level’ method or by weighing it out on a food scale. To spoon and level, spoon the flour into your measuring cup and then level off the top with a knife. Don’t scoop it and don’t pack it into the cup.
- Measure the banana correctly. If you have a food scale then just weigh the peeled banana (393g) before adding to the blender, there is no need to mash it first. If you don’t have a food scale, then mash the banana so you can measure out the correct amount (1 and ¾ cups) before adding it to the blender.
- Don’t want to use the blender? We blend the bananas, coconut oil and soy milk because it results in a very even distribution of banana flavor through the batter and a very smooth batter. But if you’d prefer not to blend then you can just mash up your banana, melt the coconut oil and mash it in with your banana and then add the mashed banana and coconut oil to your mixing bowl along with the soy milk.
- Storing and Freezing. Keep it covered at room temperature where it will stay good for 3-4 days. It’s freezer friendly for up to 2 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge.
Can I tell me about the cake pan/ loaf pan you use? What size what variations are ok? Thanks
Never made a cake bread before
Hi Lisa, the standard loaf pan size is 9 x 5 and that is what we used in this recipe. All the best! 🙂
Hi. Is there a major reason for the different sugars? can both parts be brown sugar? I haven’t used white sugar in years. Thank you.
Hi Carmelo, you can use only brown sugar it will be fine. Usually the reason to use a mix of the two is that brown sugar is a little heavier so weighs down the baked goods more, but it’s subtle differences and will be fine to just use all brown in this recipe. All the best! 🙂
Thank you!!!
Can you use coconut milk instead of soy or almond milk?
Sure! 🙂
Perfect for using up over ripe bananas. All the family love it.
Awesome! Thanks Tony! 🙂
This was delicious, very dense and moist. The chocolate flavor is powerful. I might add another banana next time.
Love this !!!!! the taste of the banana and chocolate just goes perfectly together.
I really want to try this…is there any way I could make this without banana and still have it be a chocolate bread? Either way, I can’t wait to give this a try! Thanks for giving us another amazing vegan recipe!!
Oh….that would be an experiment for sure! If you’re up for giving it a go without being at all sure of how it will turn out (since I have not tested this at all) then I would likely try to replace the bananas with 1 cup (240ml) of applesauce, double the coconut oil to 6 Tbsp and increase the soy milk by 1/4 cup (so use 3/4 cup (180ml). That is my best guess at replacing what you’re losing from leaving out the bananas. Applesauce is neutral in flavor so the overall taste should be just chocolate! Let us know how it goes if you try it! 🙂
Can I use water instead of milk, and change the sugar with black strap molasses/coconut sugar and use carob for the color?
Hi Hanny, I think water instead of milk would be fine, and if you use coconut sugar that should be fine. I wouldn’t use blackstrap molasses though. Carob might be totally fine as well but I’m not sure, but definitely worth a try! 🙂
Can you use Red Mill Egg Replacer instead of the flax egg?
Hi there, yes I’m sure that would be fine. 🙂
Absolutely delicious! I’ve made this a couple of times and getting ready to make it again for a friend. My husband loves it and eats it for dessert topped with vegan ice cream, vegan coconut Reddy Whip (or both), and fresh raspberries. I added some chocolate extract for a more intense chocolate flavor and chopped roasted walnuts because I like them. This bread freezers well and a loaf goes along way. Thanks you for sharing this recipe.
Hi Mary, that’s fantastic to hear, thanks so much for sharing and the wonderful review. 🙂
love the recipe, but found it contained too much sugar & chocolate in it, so only put 1/4 cup brown & 1/4 white sugar. With the chocolate I put in 150g choc chips instead of the 175g. Even still found it a bit too chocolatey when it came out of the oven so next time I’ll put in 125g instead.
I also added half a cup of dried pitted dates, (soaked them in hot water for 3 mins, drained & then whizzed them up in the blender with the banana etc.)
In the end it came out really well, and tastes yummy!
Amazing! Soooo decadently delicious.
This looks amazing! Any idea how long/what temp to use if making them into muffins instead of a loaf? I can’t wait to try them!
Hi Alanna, same temperature but less time, maybe 30-40 minutes. 🙂
Looks and sounds delicious! Can’t wait to give it a try 🙂
It’s really so good! Let us know how it goes! 🙂
Sounds like a yummy treat for the holidays. I’ll give it a try. I don’t use oil in my cooking or baking – with the amount of bananas I don’t think I’ll need to sub. I’ll let you know how it goes. Thanks for posting.