Vegan Banana Bread

It’s rare when produce goes bad in our kitchen, but after a few days of eating out birthday-style, we noticed the bananas were rapidly rotting in our kitchen. I stashed them in the fridge and came back to them Sunday night when I decided to “whip up” banana bread. When it comes to baking, I hardly “whip up” anything. I’m a disaster when it comes to baking sweets, always make a mess and take a chance when altering the recipe significantly. But I googled “easy vegan banana bread” and fortunately the first recipe that popped up was a winner from Post Punk Kitchen. I loved even more that this was straight-up banana bread – no walnuts, chocolate chips, or other frills were added. Just what I was looking for.

I still managed to alter the recipe because I think the original called for too much sugar and margarine. Fortunately the result was perfect banana bread success and I hardly even made a mess!

Equipment:
8 x 4 bread pan

Ingredients (slightly modified from original recipe)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cups white sugar
1/4 cup margarine, at room temp
¼ cup applesauce
3 very ripe bananas, mashed well
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup vanilla soy milk, mixed with 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray a 8×4 bread pan with non stick cooking spray, or lightly coat with margarine.
Sift together flour, baking soda, salt and spices.
Cream together the margarine and sugars. Add bananas, apple sauce, soy milk and vanilla.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry. Mix well. Pour batter into pan. Bake for an hour to an hour 10 minutes. (Note: my banana bread was done in about 40 minutes so keep an eye on yours around that time – it might depend on the oven.)