This rich-tasting, moist, light, chocolate banana loaf hits all the right notes to complement your afternoon tea or a cold glass of milk. (You'd never know it's made with no gluten, dairy, or eggs!) (Skip to recipe.)
Everyone needs a basic chocolate banana loaf that can be stirred up in minutes and devoured standing at the counter while the cake is still slightly warm. My big batch of ripe bananas has been going down as I've been making all things banana this week. This lovely little cake whips up in one bowl and disappears within hours every time I make it (third time this week!) so I thought I needed to share. It's a guilt-free way to quiet that chocolate craving that strikes every so often.
A few days ago I stood at the kitchen window, nibbling on a slice of warm chocolate banana loaf and looking out at this - yup, we had to have that last defiant spring snowstorm (winter reluctantly letting go):
But today it is beautiful and sunny and the leaves are turning green before our eyes.
I will do what I traditionally do on Mother's Day every year, and plant the last of the garden. I started last week before the rumblings of the spring blizzard, so the seeds are safe in the soil, waiting for the coming warm weather to pop out to greet the sunshine.
Then, I think there are secret Mother's Day plans afoot (I've been hearing whispers.)
Wishing you a wonderful Mother's Day, too.
* * * * *
Kitchen Frau Notes: While I'm toasting nuts, I like to toast 3 or 4 cups at a time and keep them in a jar in my pantry - ready for baking, to toss on top of morning yogurt, or just to nibble on. Because toasted nuts are wayyyyyyyy better than untoasted, for everything!
The hardness of coconut oil is very dependent on room temperature. It's harder than butter when it's cool, but its melting point is 25°C so it very quickly softens up when even slightly warm. I keep mine in a cupboard up beside the stove, so it stays relatively soft. It's easy to soften it by putting the jar in warm water or popping it in the microwave. If you warm it too long and it turns to liquid, it's still fine to use.
Chocolate Banana Loaf (Banana Bread)
gluten free, dairy free, egg free
- 3 large ripe bananas (300 gms/1¼ cups when peeled and mashed)
- ½ cup (85gms) coconut palm sugar or brown sugar
- ⅓ cup (75gms) soft coconut oil or butter
- 1 cup (150gms) buckwheat flour
- ¼ cup (30gms) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ½ cup (60gms) toasted pecans or walnuts
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Arrange the pecans or walnuts on a baking sheet in a single layer and toast for 10 minutes, until fragrant and turning colour. Let cool.
Grease a 4 x 8 inch (10 x 20 cm) loaf pan. Set aside.
Mash the bananas with a potato masher in a large bowl. Mash in the brown sugar and the coconut oil or butter.
Add the buckwheat flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and vanilla. Stir with a spoon or spatula until smooth.
Coarsely chop the nuts, reserve one tablespoon, and stir the rest into the batter.
Plop the batter into the prepared loaf pan, smooth the top, and sprinkle with the reserved nuts.
Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack to finish cooling.
Slices best when completely cool, but sometimes you've just gotta cut off big slabs while it's still warm!
Makes one loaf.
Guten Appetit!
Sign up here to receive new Kitchen Frau recipes directly to your email inbox, and get a handy and useful kitchen tip with each recipe.
If you like my recipes, follow me on Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook. You’d make my day!
You might also like:
Jeanette
Thank you for showing your property as it is very much like mine. Those are Queen Anne Lace plants? I read a lot of historical books & they were the plants at the edge of the walk way. Look forward to trying the recipe.
Margaret
I feel lucky to be able to live in the country, even though it's a lot of work to keep up (it feels more like playing!). I've tried growing Queen Anne's Lace plants, but no luck in our hard winter climate - I love their historical connection, too. The little blue plants are squills - a hardy bulb that seems to thrive (read - go crazy) here. Hope you enjoy the banana loaf, and hope you had a great Mother's Day.
Jeanette
Squills look nice & I do have these here in the garden. I am looking at the plants surrounding the daffodils. What are they? I can't imagine how you find the time to do all this gardening? Please show us more pictures when the garden is planted? Banana bread is in the oven. Dd will be up in 45 minutes so timed perfectly. Smells wonderful. I did swap out for another flour as it is what I had on hand & gluten free is not a problem here. Dd likes chocolate with her banana bread. I hope you also had a lovely Mother's Day!
Margaret
Sorry, I wasn't sure which plants you meant. The ones around the daffodils are a kind of perennial cranesbill/geranium, but I'm not sure which variety since I got them from my Uncle years ago. I keep dividing them and am trying to have them grow as a groundcover around the pear tree, since they fill in nicely and are very hardy, and best of all, they don't allow weeds to come up through them! Gardening gets to be an obsession, and a wonderful procrastinator from doing housework - at least that's my excuse!
Tammy
Happy Mother's Day! I hope you enjoyed your surprises. This looks like a wonderfully yummy recipe - I will need to try it out! I planted an "urban vegetable" garden in our yard today as well. Should be interesting to see how it turns out :0)
Margaret
Thank you, Tammy. Yes, this banana cake is very tasty (thanks in part to that wonderful Epicure cocoa powder, too!) and has a great texture. How exciting to watch you garden grow! Such a great feeling.
I hope you had a great Mother's Day, too. I feel so lucky to have been able to spend it with the whole family, and they spoiled me with a wonderful day in Edmonton, a walk across the bridge and around the parliament buildings, stops for ice cream, coffee, and dinner, and then a great movie (The Woman in Gold - fantastic film). Best part was time with my kids, though.
Jeanette
This recipe has been devoured as Dd had the day off. I was going to serve it at dinner but all gone. Dd says she has not idea what happened to it? Dh purchased some bananas today so I will make more in the morning as the oven is being used at the moment for yours/Mable's Farmers Chicken.
Margaret
That is so funny . . . the same cake-snitching elf that visits our house must have paid you a visit, too! 😉 So glad she likes it!
Jeanette
I have another one in the oven right now. Saw those bananas last night & thought "I know where you are headed."
Margaret
Those bananas didn't stand a chance, did they?! (I have to hide them in our house to let them ripen.)
Jeanette
That is funny. I just walked by the banana stand & there are 3 still there. I said "You are not long for this World". Dd took the fresh loaf to work this morning with the recipe for those who wished a copy. Could not help myself & put the Farmhouse Chicken recipe in there too. Dd said everyone loved it & she made a number of copies.
Margaret
Aww, that warms my heart! Glad to know the recipes are doing some traveling!
Stacey
I tried to make this today however mixture was very dry that even adding another mashed banana didn't make texture any more softer. Where have I went wrong? I used coconut flour instead of buckwheat & butter instead of coconut butter
Stacey
I know what it is. The cups you have changed into grams however the grams measurements are incorrect & are infact double. For 1 cup would be 85gms not 150gms
Margaret
Hi Stacey, Baking with gluten free flours can be so frustrating, can't it? The gram measurements for the buckwheat flour are correct. I've rechecked them several times whenever I bake with them. (The standard weight used for regular wheat flour is 140 grams per cup, and I find the buckwheat flour I have is usually a touch heavier than that since it's so finely ground. Other buckwheat flours may weigh a little less, but not that much.) I think your problem is the coconut flour.
Coconut flour is a very different beast than any other gluten free flours and really sucks the moisture out of baking. It is MUCH more absorbent than other flours. Most recipes using coconut flour have a ratio of about 1 egg to every tablespoon or tablespoon and a half of coconut flour. You would have to use many more eggs in my recipe to make it work with coconut flour (like 8 to 12), or increase the liquid considerably. My coconut flour cookbooks say you shouldn't replace more than a few tablespoons of the flour in a regular recipe with coconut flour (no more than 25%, but 10 to 15% is better). I think you might have more luck with my recipe if you used a different type of flour than coconut to replace the buckwheat, but even then, I couldn't predict what the results would be. Each gluten free flour behaves a little differently in recipes. I've only tested my recipe with buckwheat flour (though I did make it using half oat flour and half buckwheat flour once and that worked out very well.) Wishing you luck in your baking and kitchen experimenting 🙂