Our family loves banana bread so much that we sometimes leave bananas to over ripe just to bake the bread. This time I chose to bake a chocolate banana bread from here. I made a couple of changes intentionally and a big one unintentionally! Yes, I forgot to add the sugar while mixing the dry ingredients and didn't realize it until I scraped the batter into the loaf pan. I was lazy to put back the batter and mix in the sugar. Also I thought that this would lead to over mixing and will result in a tough bread. So I decided to bake it just like that. You must be wondering how it tasted?
We were pretty surprised that we liked the sugar free chocolate banana bread just as much as we like the regular banana bread. I think the bananas I used were quite sweet, so we did not miss the sugar. I'm not lying when I tell that my 5 year old son liked it too. I guess the chocolate chips did the trick for him. This is just my family's opinion but I'm aware that there are so many people out there who feel that sugar is not sweet enough (like my mother). So if you are one among them do not omit the sugar.
Another change I made was to use extra virgin coconut oil instead of butter. I have been thinking of using this for quite sometime now but was postponing because I was not sure if we would like the coconut flavor. So even while baking this chocolate banana bread, I was not daring enough to replace the entire ½ cup of butter with coconut oil. Instead I used ¼ cup of coconut oil and used applesauce for the remaining ¼ cup. While the bread was baking we were able to smell the wonderful aroma of coconut mixed with cocoa. This was something very different from the usual cocoa/vanilla aroma. I was able to feel it even while tasting the bread the next day. But after a day or two we didn't get that coconutty flavor.
Recipe
Sugar Free Chocolate Banana Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 and ¾ cups All Purpose Flour
- ¼ cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
- 1 cup (See My Notes) Sugar
- ¼ teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 and ¼ teaspoons Baking Powder
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- ¼ cup Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, melted
- ½ cup Unsweetened Applesauce
- ¼ cup Plain Yogurt (I used non fat)
- 2-3 tablespoons or as needed Water
- 1 and ½ cups (approx. 3 bananas) Bananas ripe and mashed
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ½ cup Walnuts or Pecans, toasted and chopped
- ¼ cup Mini semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F/180C for 15 minutes. Grease or line the loaf pan with parchment paper.
- While the oven is preheating toast the nuts for 8-10 minutes and chop it once it is cool.
- In a large bowl mix together the dry ingredients (from flour to salt).
- In another bowl stir together the oil, applesauce, yogurt, bananas and vanilla extract.
- Fold in the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir until just combined.
- Fold in the nuts and chocolate chips. Do not over-mix the batter.
- Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 55-65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean. Mine was done after 60 minutes.
- Place the pan on a cooling rack and then remove the bread from the pan. Since I had line the pan with parchment paper I was able to remove the bread within a couple of minutes.
My Notes
- The original recipe called for ½ cup of melted butter, which I have replaced with ¼ cup of melted extra virgin coconut oil and ¼ cup applesauce. Also for the 2 eggs, I have used ¼ cup applesauce and ¼ cup yogurt and increased the quantity of baking powder by ¼ teaspoon.
- I forgot to add sugar while preparing the batter and realised it only at the end, so just proceeded with it anyway. We did like the bread even without the sugar. I think the bananas were sweet enough. So I guess even if you decide to add sugar, you may not need the entire 1 cup. Even ½ cup sugar should be fine.
- I have used ½ cup of applesauce to replace ¼ cup of melted butter and 1 egg. If I had another banana I would have used that itself instead of the applesauce. So if you have bananas you could use it; applesauce is not compulsory.
- The batter was very thick so I added a couple tablespoons of water to make it a bit spreadable.
Lakshmi says
Would love to try this simple recipe. I don't have applesauce and you have suggested using mashed banana. Should I use total 2 cups mashed banana - 1 1/2 plus 1/2 cup more?
Madhuram says
Yes Lakshmi.
Kim says
Hi Madhu,.
Thanks for the recipe.
I tried the recipe and it turned out well.the only thing I felt could be better was less cocoa powder. Because the color of bread is very dark in compare to yours.. And in your photo the upper layer looks normal but mine looks little overdone. I wanted to send you pic but I don't have option to send..thought may be you could give some suggestion.
Thanks
Madhuram says
Sometimes the pictures we put might not replicate it exactly how it looked actually. How does the texture feel? Was it dry? In that case reduce the baking time a little bit.
Kim says
Hey yeah,
Texture was good..but little dry but I think its because I used whole wheat flour...otherwise it was good..
Can I bake mini cupcakes out of them?
Thanks
Kim
Madhuram says
Maybe you can try adding some more liquid because whole wheat flour generally take up extra moisture. I'm sure mini cupcakes should work too.
Kim says
I tried them and they turned really great.
This is our all time favourite recipe now.
Thanks for sharing these amazing vegan and eggless recipes and the hard work you are putting in 🙂
Madhuram says
You're very welcome Kim. 🙂
anitha says
wow! I used this as base recipe for my eggless chocolate fruit and nut sugarfree bread/cake. I added more ingredients like nuts/kismis and i baked it in the airfryer. The quantity was more so I had to bake it twice. Awesome cake
Madhuram says
Thanks Anitha.
linnyninja says
Just made this bread with 1 cup oat flour, 3/4 cup "All-bran flour",3/4 cup applesauce, fat free greek yogurt, 2 packets of stevia, no nuts, sugar, salt, choco chips, or oil, and some cinnamon; it baked about an hour 15 min... I am pleasantly surprised. Even though I really tweaked the recipe, it still turned out good. It is a moist, dense bread, but it tasted great:) Maybe next time I make it I will sub. some of the applesauce for pumpkin... yummy:)
Madhuram says
Thanks Linny. Your pumpkin puree suggestion is a good one.
Jyoti says
Hey can i use something else instead of Applesauce.
Madhuram says
Some more bananas maybe!
Karen says
This recipe looks really good and I love the idea of usuing less or even no sugar ! AWESOME but I was just wondering if I could subsitute the yogurt with more apple sauce, because I can't eat yogurt 🙁 let me know if you think it would work.
Madhuram says
I think you should be fine using applesauce or even more banana.