Vegan chocolate and banana tea loaf

banana and chocolate tea lof

banana and chocolate tea lof

One of my main guests over the Christmas hols was my eldest son, ex vegetarian recently turned vegan. ARGHHHH! I have got to say , much as I respect vegans, they aren’t the easiest people to cater for. Plus, although a vegetarian myself, I simply love eggs and dairy products ( I couldn’t live without my beloved parmigiano) and use them a lot in my everyday cooking. So I sheepishly asked him whether as a Christmas present he might entertain the idea of reverting back to vegetarianism  for a few days (just to make my life easier?), but the answer was NO (“nice try, mum!!”). That left me with one of 2 choices: cooking separate meals or going vegan for the duration of his stay. I plumped for the second option as I didn’t fancy cooking two different dishes at every meal. I am not that much of a masochist.  Vegan we temporarily became then and you’ll be pleased to hear I survived the eggs and dairy embargo relatively unscathed (not sure about my intestines, but that’s a different story and one you won’t want to hear). One of the things I made while my son was here was this tea loaf. I had some really ripe bananas languishing in my fruit bowl so it was a good way to use them. I have got to say the loaf was really rather nice, in fact much nicer than I thought it would be. Not too sweet, lovely and moist. We had it still warm with some vegan ice cream. Really quite yummy! My son even took a piece back to his girlfriend who raved about it. So there you go: it is possible, albeit a bit of a challenge, to produce decent vegan cakes. Mind you as soon as he was out of the door, out came the butter and the eggs again…;-) By the way, HAPPY 2018 everyone!!! Keep loving food and experimenting in the kitchen! :-)

INGREDIENTS

  • 3 medium overripe bananas, mashed until smooth
     120 ml oil or 120 gr. margarine suitable for vegans (you can use vegetable, peanut or sunflower oil, etc.. I personally used 80 gr. vegan margarine and 40 ml. of coconut oil)
     130 gr. sugar (I used golden caster sugar. I suggest adding a bit more sugar if you have a sweet tooth as the loaf is not very sweet)
    1 teaspoon vanilla extract
     180 ml. non-dairy milk (coconut, almond, cashew, etc.)
     230 gr. self raising flour
     30 gr  cocoa powder 
    1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 100 gr. dark chocolate (70% cocoa), chopped
    1/2 teaspoon  salt

METHOD

In a large bowl, beat together bananas, oil, sugar, vanilla, and milk until smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder,  baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until smooth. The mixture will look quite wet. Don’t worry! Fold in chocolate pieces, then pour into prepared tin.

Put in a loaf tin and bake at 180 degrees for about 50 to 55 minutes, or slightly longer (basically until cake has risen and is slightly cracked, and a toothpick comes out clean).

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