I had a craving for warm banana bread that I simply had to do something about. So this morning I baked this Honeycrisp Apple Banana Bread with oats, spices, vanilla, chia seeds, a hint of coconut oil and plenty of love.
Apples. As I went to pull ingredients, a pile of shiny red and green swirled honeycrisp apples were staring back at me in my fridge. So I decided that instead of doing banana bread, I would add a baked apple spin with banana-apple bread. Oh those honeycrisp apples are my favorite for fall. Honeycrisp, you know, that super sweet, juicy-delicious, sometimes giant in size, always awesome and crunchy fall apple variety. (Back in my early days of blogging I went so far as to pair my beloved honeycrisp apples with pasta, a la this recipe. But it actually worked!)
Over top the moist, bananas, oats, spices, vanilla and apple pie flavor infused bread, comes a thick drizzle of sweet almond butter. Almond butter accents both bananas and apples (and warm bread!) beautifully. Satisfy your banana bread craving with this cozy-inducing vegan recipe..
So I had this banana bread craving.
So I flipped on my stove and soon the aromas of cinnamon, vanilla, bananas and baked apples were wafting through my cozy kitchen. And in about an hour, my banana bread was served. Take that craving.
Friendly Fall Reminder. Slice into this flavorful loaf and the comforting apple and spice aromas will remind you to pull out your sweaters and scarves because "fall is coming." Warm spices, steamy hot mugs, crisp chilly breezes, dusty golden, dark red and burnt orange leaves, oatmeal cravings, fall holidays and more. OK, lets not get ahead of ourselves, like all the stores seem to do. Seriously, do we really need Halloween costumes in late August? But hooray, today it is still summer, and this banana bread doesn't mind that all. So take a baking-time break, chill out in your kitchen for an hour and await your taste test of this delicious dish.
Two ways to enjoy. This bread tastes delicious with or without the almond butter drizzle...
Honeycrisp Banana Bread
vegan, makes 1 standard bread loaf
dry:
1 cup spelt flour, organic (mine was sprouted grain spelt)
1 cup rolled oats, processed until fine
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
dash of cayenne or nutmeg (optional added spices)
liquid blend - in my Vitamix:
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ very ripe bananas, peeled
½ cup honeycrisp apple, chopped
¼ cup raw turbino cane sugar, organic
*(note: the bananas and apples will vary in sweetness, if you are worried about your bread being too sweet you can reduce the sugar even further)
4 teaspoon chia seeds (chia is my egg replacer in this recipe)
1 cup almond milk (or any non-dairy substitute)
Fold in:
½ banana, sliced
½ cup honeycrisp apple, diced (add a few pinches more for extra-apple-y bread)
¼ cup melted organic coconut oil
2 heaping tablespoons Earth Balance, vegan butter
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
Top:
1 teaspoon rolled oats, 1 teaspoon sugar
Almond Butter Drizzle:
2 tablespoon melted coconut oil
2 tablespoon almond butter
2-3 teaspoon maple syrup
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 415 degrees. Yes, THAT hot. Also - add a few serving plates to your freezer. So they are fully chilled when serving. (You will see why and end.)
2. Grease your bread pan with coconut oil.
3. Chop your apple.
4. Add your whole rolled oats to Vitamix (or food processor). Process until mediun to fine in texture. You are essentially making oat flour.
5. Add oat flour and all other dry ingredients to large mixing bowl. Toss well.
6. Add all liquid blend ingredients to blender or fp. Process on low until smooth. Process for a good 2 minutes to fully blend apples and assist in plumping and "activating" the chia seeds for a thick texture liquid.
7. Fold liquid into the dry and then add fold in ingredients. Add the vinegar as the very last ingredient.
8. Pour batter into pan and top with oats and sprinkle of sugar.
9. Bake at 410 for 10 minutes. Then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for an additional 35 minutes. About 45-50 minutes total baking time.
10. Cool bread a bit before removing from pan. Make almond butter while cooling.
11. Quickly stir together almond butter + coconut oil + maple until smooth. Warm almond butter if needed to soften before mixing. Set aside at room temp until ready to drizzle over top bread.
12. Serving: Pull chilled plates from freezer. Add a warm, moist slice of banana bread to a chilled plate and drizzle the almond butter mix over top - let it hit the plate. You will notice that when the coconut oil-based almond drizzle hits the plate, it firms up a bit to a lovely frosting-ish texture. But the drizzle on the warm bread stays soft and warm. Serve and enjoy!
Kelley says
Can I use coconut flour instead of spelt?
Kathy Patalsky says
Any veg oil will work if needed! Or vegan butter if you leave out the added salt.
Hope that helps in time!
Karly-Barney Kelsay says
I just started to make this and realized I don't have coconut oil!! Anything that you've used that can be substituted for the coconut oil?
Kathy Patalsky says
Hi Michelle, good catch. So you can start with your hot oven at 415. 410 would work too. Buy basically you want it a bit over 400 to really get that top crust formed once the initial baking rise occurs. Hope that helps! 🙂
Anna says
This was delicious! I made it twice in 2 weeks! First time, I didn't make the almond drizzle (still yummy) and 2nd time, I made it with the drizzle. My goodness, it took deliciousness to a whole new level! Thanks for the awesome recipe 🙂
Brittany Mullins says
This looks absolutely delicious!
Tracy says
Did anyone make these as muffins?
Adriane says
I'm making these as I type! I am gf so I subbed spelt flour for all purpose gf flour and used a large muffin tin as I can't seem to locate my loaf pan. So far they look amazing! Thank you for the recipe!
Sophie Le Blanc says
This is so good! Thank you! I had never made oat flour before, and had some leftover of spelt flour... yum!
Sophie says
Yeah!!!. 😀 But Belgium is not very vegan friendly though, it is still very much a meat eating & beer drinking country! 😉
Kathy Patalsky says
Yes date sugar would be awesome i think. I love the caramel flavor of date sugar so I think it would mesh well. Let me know how it goes!! 🙂
Kathy Patalsky says
🙂
Kathy Patalsky says
Thanks! Hello to Belgium. I'm OBSESSED with Le Pain Quotidien, so hopefully will visit your beautiful neck of the woods one day. xo 🙂
Kathy Patalsky says
haha love it. Yes almond butter is not an easy SPREAD on delicate banana bread .. but drizzled it works beautifully.
Kathy Patalsky says
Who isn't? ha. 🙂 TY!
Kathy Patalsky says
perfect! 🙂
Kathy Patalsky says
Yes agreed. 🙂 I just needed to add in some PUMPKIN then that statement would be really true, yes? 🙂 Love honeycrisps..
Kathy Patalsky says
I won't lie, I'm not a gluten free flour expert! But I have used "all purpose gf baking flour" varieties and they tend to work generally well in baked goods. The texture is more crumbly, I have found, but overall you should be good to go with any variety. If you give it a try, I'd love to hear how it turns out!
Kathy Patalsky says
Yes i think that would work well. Sugar tends to have a slightly more thickened texture even when melted than maple, so maybe add a pinch more flour. But really, those chia seeds hold things together quite nicely 🙂
Kathy Patalsky says
thanks!
Kathy Patalsky says
I am a photographer. I like a lot of photos. And I know as a photographer looking at food sites I LOVE viewing many different shots of food. Even very subtle changes catch my eye. I'm sorry if this is annoying for a cell phone. I am working on scaling back I promise!! But I hope you enjoy them all and just bear with me and my uber-eye-candy-food-photo-loving brain.
Kathy Patalsky says
thnx!
Kathy Patalsky says
Aw thanks Heather! Don't give up on her! It is funny, i have never ever tried to "make my mom vegan" - I've just been feeding her delicious vegan recipes the past ten years and one day she said, "Oh yeah, your father and I are both vegan now, didn't I tell you?" haha. My mom is a bit past 70. So it is never too late! But either way, I know you guys will love this banana bread - it is one of my favorite baked goods to nibble too. xo
Heather McClees says
Thanks Kathy!:) I sure hope so:) I recently got a magazine in the mail about being vegan and what goes on in factory farming. I gently laid it on her nightstand in the middle of her magazine stack to read, hoping she'll take a peak one night out of interest. She's SUCH an animal lover so I sure hope one day she'll convert.
Thanks for this recipe again!:) I'm just dying over that almond butter!!:)
Best wishes to you and Nelly<3
Kathy Patalsky says
thnx John!
Kathy Patalsky says
woo hoo! enjoy Maria!
Kathy Patalsky says
Any apple would work, or you could leave out the apple if need be and sub with more banana or even another fruit! Citrus, berries or even dates would be nice. Nuts would also be another add-in if you need to bulk up your batter.
Kathy Patalsky says
I'll take that 😉 TY!
Kathy Patalsky says
thanks!
Nic@diningwithastud says
Love banana bread 🙂 that drizzle looks amazing!
Christina says
WOW! Adding applies to banana bread is genius!
slywlf says
Mmmm - sounds like a trip to the farm stand is in order - I have frozen bananas but no Honeycrisps - but I know who does.... my mouth is watering!!! 😉
Maria Tadic says
Done and done - making this asap! I have tons of frozen bananas, a drawer full of honey crisp and an empty bread pan!
John Hartil says
Scrumptious!!!
Heather McClees says
My mother's favorite food is banana bread, so I was so excited to see this! I make it for her as a surprise at least once a month on a special Saturday I know we'll be able to spend together. We also go to the local mountains here in the Carolina's every year together to pick fresh apples off the trees at local farms. It is one of our favorite trips to take together each year and I cherish it so, especially since my Dad has passed away now.
Mom's not vegan, though I'm still trying and NOT giving up!:) I think this would be the ULTIMATE recipe to make for her to convince her how delicious vegan can be. You're a genius Ms. Kathy!! XoXo
Johanna says
Though, they all do look delicious.
Johanna says
Why do you need so many pictures? When I'm not home I can't view the page on my phone.
McKel Hill, MS, RDN, LDN says
Sounds like a perfect fall recipe!
Olivia says
can you sub maple syrup for the sugar?
Cindy says
This looks so darn good! I need help though, I must eat gluten free and spelt flour isn't gluten free. What flour would you suggest as a substitute? I really want to make this soon! Thank you.
Stephanie Darby says
All the best things about fall in one recipe! Drooling over these photos! As soon as my bananas ripen, this is first on my baking list.
Emerald says
Talk about synchronicity, one of the things on my agenda today was banana bread as I have a couple in my cupboard that are perfectly brown and speckled. Thanks!!
Warm Vanilla Sugar says
This sounds awesome!! I'm always down for a new banana bread recipe!
coconutandberries says
Banapple Bread! Drooling here....! I love the idea for the AB drizzle too.
Sophie says
I think, I really love you know, ha! I love all of your tasty recipes & have been a fan since the beginning of your blog!
I am not a vegan but do cook, bake & eat vegan at least 5x/week! A fantastic spelt-oat-banana-apple bread & that drizzle is amazing too! 🙂 Yummm!
Many greetings from a foodie fan of yours from Belgium! 🙂
beachmama says
This is dangerous . . . no one home but me and I have all of these ingredients . . .
Tracy says
making this tomorrow! Hoping my almost 4 year old likes it...going to leave out the drizzle so I can send it to school! One question...I have a big bag of date sugar that I haven't used. Could I use that instead of the turbinado sugar? I haven't baked with date sugar before. Thanks for the easy recipe.