If you’re a frequent visitor to our bakery in Liberty Village you’d know that we like to change things up season to season. We often feature a special sourdough loaf and mini sweet loaf that changes after a few months. This allows our bakers to constantly create and experiment with our fresh flour and gives us the opportunity to feature veggies, fruits, and other ingredients that are currently in-season.
We’ve had some big hits this past year with our Spiced Rye cake, Lemon and Blueberry loaf, and of course, our beloved vegan Dark Chocolate Banana loaf.
There was a strong reaction when our banana loaf left shelves this past spring. And hey, we get it. It’s pretty freakin’ good. The recipe was developed by Erika, one of our bakers at the time. With her blessing we’re now able to share the recipe with you so you can make this delicious loaf at home!
First things first: we recommend using fresh flour. This particular recipe uses spelt, of which we are huge fans of for our baked goods at the bakery. The flavour of our spelt flour is described as sweet, nutty, and rich. It pairs well with vanilla and cinnamon, which tends to highlight the nuttiness of the flour. (You can always pick up a bag of spelt from our Liberty Village location, or order online through our store to be shipped anywhere in Canada).
To further the flavour of the spelt we recommend using spelt flakes, which can be purchased at most health or bulk food stores. If you can’t find spelt flakes, rolled oats work just fine.
Recipe
Dry
+ 210g Fresh Milled Spelt Flour
+ 5g baking soda
+ 3g baking powder
+ 3g salt
+ 15g ground flax seed
+ 50g spelt flakes (rolled oats work, too)
Wet
+ 60g sugar
+ 80g melted coconut oil
+ 320g peeled bananas (overripe is best)
+ 80g oat milk
+ 30g maple syrup
+ 5g vanilla extract
Mix-Ins & Toppings
+ 80g dark chocolate chips
+ three lengthwise slices of banana topped with brown sugar and bruleed (optional, see photo)
Method
- Pre-heat your oven to 350F.
- Melt your coconut oil in a small bowl and let it cool slightly, 30 seconds or less in the microwave should do the trick!
- While the coconut oil is cooling, mash up the peeled bananas and add them to a large bowl to be mixed with your sugar, maple syrup, oat milk, and vanilla extract.
- Once the coconut oil has cooled you can add it to your wet ingredients and mix until combined.
- Add in your ground flax and thoroughly mix it into your wet ingredients before proceeding.
- Whisk together the remainder of the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then slowly start folding dry and wet ingredients together.
- Continue mixing until you see no dry spots of flour and everything is homogenous. The batter will be slightly thick and will continue to thicken the longer it sits.
- Fold in your chocolate chips (you can also fold in nuts, seeds, or any other mix-ins at this time).
- Let the batter sit for 5 minutes before emptying into a greased/parchment-lined 9in x 5in loaf pan.
- Place the loaf on the centre rack in your oven and set a timer for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, rotate the loaf and continue to bake for another 20 minutes.
- Check the doneness of your loaf by using a cake tester or toothpick – it should come out clean. Add additional time in 5 minute increments until the cake tester comes out clean. (You may need to tent the top of the loaf with tinfoil to prevent the top from overcooking.)
- When the loaf is done remove it from the oven and allow the loaf at least 15-20 minutes to cool before removing from the pan.
- Top your loaf with three banana slices and sprinkle on some brown sugar, brûlée them with a torch. (This last step is optional, but fun!)
