Gingerbread, need I say more?

It’s that time of the year again! When I get all hyped and into the Christmas spirit! I woke up this weekend craving ginger bread- saw that I had a ton of overripe bananas- so the idea of ginger-banana bread popped into my head! I figured I would do a similar recipe to my traditional banana bread, but add in lots of great holiday spices like cinnamon, ginger and cloves and of course molasses. It turned out pretty darn good!

You’ll need a lot of ripe bananas for this! Make sure you pick ones that are full of brown spots and really soft. They will be sweeter this way and you won’t need to add too much sweetener to the bread.

Mash up those bananas! I used 5 for the recipe and they were all about a medium-large in size. The best method I find is to the a fork and if they are really ripe, they’ll mash very easily.

Add in the rest of your wet ingredients. Pure vanilla extract, plant based milk (I used some leftover coconut milk I had), maple syrup to sweeten the bread, molasses- I prefer using Blackstrap Molasses for more nutritional benefits, and a little vinegar to balance it all out.

Mix the wet ingredients throughly. Set aside.

In a small separate bowl, add in all of your dry ingredients. Flour, baking powder, baking soda, a pinch of salt and then all your spices! For this recipe I of course used ground ginger- such an awesome flavor! Then I added in some cinnamon, nutmeg and ground cloves. Of course I couldn’t find my ground cloves- but I had whole cloves so it gave me a change to use my mortar and pestle!

Add the dry into the wet and mix just to combine. Don’t overmix as the dough may become tough.

Pour the batter into a loaf pan and smooth the top.
.
.
.
Now I couldn’t stop just there…This bread is special. The holiday’s call for a little something extra so why not make a crumbly pecan topping??

In a small bowl, combine chopped pecans, brown sugar, cinnamon, flour, a pinch of salt and some melted coconut oil to bind. Then sprinkle on the top of the loaf and put in the oven! Bake for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Recipe:
– 5 mashed banans
– 2 tsp vanilla extract
– 1/3 cup plant based milk (I used coconut)
– 1/4 cup or less of pure maple syrup depending on how sweet the bananas are
– 1/4 Blackstrap Molasses
– 1 TBS apple cider vinegar

– 2 cups all purpose flour
– 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
– 1/2 tsp baking powder
– 1 TBS cinnamon
– 2 tsp ground ginger
– 1/2 tsp ground cloves
– 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine all the wet indregients in a large bowl and mix well. Add the dry ingredients in a small bowl and stir through. Add the dry into the wet and mix until just combine. Add into a loaf pan and set aside.

Pecan Topping:
– 1/3 cup pecans- chopped
– 4 TBS packed dark brown sugar
– 3 TBS flour
– 1/4 tsp cinnamon
– pinch of salt
– 1 1/2 tsp melted coconut oil

Combine all topping ingredients together until a crumble forms. Add on top of the bread mixture and put in preheated oven for about 45 minutes. Depending on your oven, it may take a little longer. If a toothpick comes out clean, it’s done. Serve warm and enjoy!

Serve warm with a little vegan butter if you’d like. To me, this is more of a dessert bread. So tasty and cozy for the holidays!

Be happy, be balanced, be vegan,

Melissa

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *