INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup soy milk or 7 ounces plant-based yogurt plus ¼ cup plant-based milk
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 2 cups spelt flour or whole wheat pastry flour
- 1 ¼ cup organic cane sugar
- ½ cup organic cocoa powder
- 2 Tablespoons arrowroot powder or organic cornstarch, optional.
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 4 very ripe medium bananas, preferably spotted and almost black in color
- ⅓ cup applesauce
- ½ cup black sesame butter or tahini or regular tahini, a liquid version is preferred
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ¾ cups non-dairy chocolate chips, divided
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Grease two 5×9 baking pans with coconut oil or organic whole-wheat shortening and line the pans with parchment paper so that they hang over the rim.
- Mix soy milk and apple cider vinegar in a measuring cup or small bowl.
- Sift spelt flour, organic cane sugar, cocoa powder, arrowroot powder, baking powder, baking soda, sea salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg into a medium mixing bowl.
- In a large mixing bowl, mash bananas with a large fork or potato masher. Add soy milk with apple cider vinegar, applesauce, black sesame butter and vanilla extract. Mix well with a spatula.
- Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Stir and fold until combined. Stir in 1 cup chocolate chips.
- Pour mixture into the two 9×5-inch baking pans. Sprinkle with remaining chocolate chips.
- Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, checking after 50 minutes to see if the batter is done. Insert a wooden toothpick into the center of each loaf. The bread is done when moist crumbs or no crumbs come out. If raw dough comes out with the toothpick, continue baking, checking every 5 minutes to see if the dough is cooked. The edges should be coming away from the sides of the pan.
- Remove the baking pans from the oven and let cool on a rack for 20 minutes. Pat with parchment paper before serving. Let cool completely before storing. Yields approximately 16 slices of 2 loaves.
NOTES
- Be sure to use the ripest bananas you can find, the spottier and darker the better. At this point they will be soft on the inside. Perfect. Otherwise, the banana bread won’t be as sweet as it could be. It’s worth setting aside some bananas until they are fully ripe. Once your bananas are ripe, you can store them in the refrigerator until they darken.
- If you wish, you can freeze the second loaf. You can store this cake well wrapped for three days at room temperature. It can be stored in the refrigerator for up to five days or frozen (sealed airtight) for one month. Wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and aluminum foil before freezing in an airtight zip-top freezer bag. Defrost overnight in the refrigerator.
