Vegan Oil-Free Refined Sugar-Free Banana Pecan Bread

I love a good, dense, soft, sweet, banana bread (can I get an amen?). The entire process of making it is therapeutic to me! We had 6 big bushels of super ripe spotty bananas sitting on our counter, so I froze half for banana ice cream, saved a couple bushels to much on, and used the rest to bake up some goods for the week. I love all the different ways you can manipulate a simple banana to create so many wonderful, delicious treats!

I wanted to come up with a recipe that was very low fat, no oil, no eggs/dairy of course, no refined sugars, but still FULL of flavor. I wanted something that tasted like dessert, that could also be eaten for breakfast. We finished the last of these off this morning and my husband is already begging me to make it again, which is always a good sign!

These are not a typical bread you buy from the store – definitely not a light and fluffly, slightly dry, make a sandwich with it kind of bread. These are dense and moist, creamy and filling, sweet and almost brownie-like. My favorite. Give me a big mug of my vanilla caramel chai tea and a warm slice of this, and you have a pretty perfect start to a day!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup fine oat flour
1/2 cup Vitacost gluten free multi-purpose flour (or buckwheat flour)
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
2 very ripe sweet bananas
1 1/4 cups gooey pitted medjool dates (make sure they are super soft, if not soak them in hot water for 15 mins)
1 cup almond milk
1/4 cup apple sauce
4 squirts vanilla creme stevia (Or 1 tsp pure vanilla)
1/2 cup coconut sugar (or sweetener of choice)
1/4 cup chopped pecans (to top)

Directions:

Mix first 4 ingredients well, then separately mix the rest of the ingredients in your food processor until completely smooth. Combine wet and dry and stir well. Pour into your baking pan and cover with your chopped pecans.

Bake at 350F for 30-40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Let set in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up, then slice and serve.

To store, I wrap them individually in paper towels and put them in ziplock baggies to store in the fridge.
Trust me when I say, these only get better the second and third day (if they last that long, which in our home usually doesn’t happen!). We take them out and heat them up in their paper towel for 20-25 second/until warm in the microwave.

I hope you try, hope you enjoy. Have a great day everyone!!
xo Sarah