Recipe: One Bowl Banana Bread (vegan + gluten free)

In our house, banana bread is a classic, never-tired, go-to thing to bake. It can be varied in so many ways - made more quick-bread-like or more cake-like / sweeter or lighter / etc. It can take on the traditional loaf shape, or be turned into muffins or a sheet. And it's one of those rare things that can seem particularly decadent while actually being quite healthy. Anything that is both breakfast and dessert-appropriate is a good thing!While I have a couple of tried and true banana bread recipes I've created, I still really love experimenting with it and discovering little nuances based on recipe variations -- and realized last night I had 3 very brown bananas sitting in a basket on the kitchen counter. Add to that a snow storm coming today, it was time to bake!I was looking for simple, healthy and a recipe for which I already had all of the ingredients stocked. And, I wanted to try something new and different. A recipe by Minimalist Baker caught my eye for being one-bowl (doesn't get much easier than that!), vegan and gluten-free -- and included whole oats, which I haven't previously baked into banana bread.The results were awesome! You can get Minimalist Baker's recipe for nutella banana bread by clicking here, and following are the adjustments I made:

  • Used Bob's Red Mill 1:1 gluten-free flour blend where the recipe calls for gf flour

  • Used gluten-free old fashioned (vs. quick) oats

  • Added a tablespoon of chia seeds

  • Used 1/2 tbsp vanilla

  • Added an extra pinch of salt

  • Added a shake or two of ground cinnamon

  • Replaced brown sugar with raw cane sugar and 1/2 tbsp molasses

  • Used coconut sugar where it was called for

  • Omitted nutella and instead added a large handful of chocolate chips (folded into the batter once all other ingredients were combined)