Vegan Chocolate Chip Banana Nut Bread

This vegan chocolate chip banana nut bread is my ideal banana bread. It’s soft and tender and perfectly moist cake studded with chocolate chips, walnuts, and pepitas. The bittersweet chocolate breaks up the sweetness of the vegan banana bread, while walnuts and pepitas add a nutty tasting, textured counterpoint. All the mix-ins complement the banana bread perfectly.

The recipe is adaptable, and you can choose to use only walnuts or only pepitas, but I personally love the combination of the two. Walnuts are a classic banana bread choice, but if you’ve never added pepitas to your banana bread you are in for a treat!

Pepitas, a type of pumpkin seed without a husk, have a delicious robust nutty flavor taste and hold their texture when baked. They’re tender but not as soft as a walnut. And personally I think they make for a really pretty loaf of banana bread!

Pair slices of vegan chocolate chip banana nut bread with a cup of coffee or tea for a delicious afternoon treat, slightly indulgent breakfast, or a sort of eat-your-fruit post dinner dessert.

What do you need to make vegan chocolate chip banana nut bread?

Making vegan banana bread is easy, because banana is actually a pretty good egg replacer. So what do you need? Just a few pantry friendly ingredients and some very ripe bananas.

• Bananas
• Granulated sugar
• Soy milk, or your choice of plant-based milk (oat milk is another good choice)
• Canola oil, or your preferred neutral flavored oil (i.e. safflower oil, sunflower oil)
• Apple cider vinegar
• Vanilla extract
• All purpose flour
• Salt
• Baking powder
• Baking soda
• Cinnamon
• Chocolate chips (I love mini chocolate chips in this recipe!)
• Chopped walnuts
• Pepitas

The leavening comes from baking powder and baking soda, while apple cider vinegar works to create a more tender crumb.

Tips for the best banana bread:

For the best banana bread use very ripe bananas, the kind that are black all over and too mushy to eat. They should smell very sweet and be nice and soft to mash with a fork.

Mash up the bananas before measuring, you don’t have to be a perfectionist here, little pieces of banana are ok to mix into the batter! If however, these little chunks annoy you, use a handheld immersion blender to quickly blitz the bananas smooth. If measuring by volume, then measure out the bananas for the recipe after you’ve mashed them.

For consistent results when you bake, measure by weight and not volume. A small kitchen scale (such as this oxo kitchen scale I use or a less expensive version like this other oxo scale, affiliate links) is one of my favorite kitchen tools. Not only will it measure more accurately than your cup measures, but it also means less clean up! Win-win.

Whisk up your dry and wet ingredients separately, then add dry to the wet and mix in until it’s mostly combined but some dry spots remain before adding in the chocolate chips, walnuts, and pepitas. Folding these add-ins in at this step keeps the bread from being over mixed. Though, when it comes to vegan baking you don’t have to worry as much about this as with egg-based baking. Your vegan cakes are not as likely to get tough from over-mixing.

Lining you loaf pan is optional, however it does make for easier removal and cleanup. If you want to line your loaf pan you can buy pan liners (such as these loaf pan liners, affiliate link) or cut parchment paper to fit. Spray with the loaf pan with oil then place the parchment liner down so that it overhangs on the sides and let it stick to the oil. It’s up to you if you just want to cut a piece to go across the width and overhang on the long edge, or if you want to cut a second long strip to go under length wise and cover the short edge.

How to bake banana bread with frozen bananas:

You can store ripe bananas in the fridge for a couple days before making your bread. If you’re more than a few days out time, you can freeze them instead. Peel the bananas and stick them in a freezer bag and freeze them for longer storage.

When you’re ready to bake the vegan chocolate chip banana nut bread then take the bananas you need for the recipe out of the freezer and leave at room temperature to defrost, or microwave to speed the process up.

As the bananas defrost the water content of the fruit will separate from the “meat” of the fruit. It’s not pleasant to look at, but when the fruit has come to room temperature you can mash it up and it will incorporate the liquid back into the mash.

Go ahead and use this mashed banana the same way you would a ripe fresh banana!

More vegan banana bread and vegan loaf cake recipes:

Turns out I have a thing for banana bread muffins, and if you do too you can make these classic bakery style vegan banana nut muffins and my vegan double chocolate banana muffins.

For some other flavors of snack cake try my vegan chai spice loaf cake.

If you make this vegan chocolate chip banana nut bread, leave a comment below and rate the recipe on the recipe card. And please share your photos with me on Instagram, tag @thecuriouschickpea and #thecuriouschickpea. I love seeing your recreations!

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