Name a better duo!

I don't know about you guys but being stuck at home for the past three weeks has me wanting to bake almost every single day. While I'm very blessed to have a job I can do from home, I'm still finding myself with a lot of time on my hands. I've also been finding myself with lots of bananas on the verge of going bad so when life hands you bananas, what do you do? Make banana bread. I prefer mine as more of a dessert than breakfast item so chocolate chips are a must but if you don't like yours super sweet, I'm sure blueberries would be delicious in it. Maybe I'll try that next! Anytime I want to make something new, Pinterest is my first stop. I stumbled upon this recipe by I Wash You Dry and it immediately grabbed my attention when it said you only needed one bowl. I love baking but I HATE doing dishes so if I can make something delightful without filling my sink full of dirty dishes, that's the recipe I'm gravitating to. Everything was going smoothly until I realized I didn't have baking soda. The bananas were in the bowl, the egg was whisked, and I suddenly hit a roadblock. What can I substitute for baking soda? After not having an success finding an alternative, I remembered I had pancake mix, which already contains baking soda, so I wondered, "what if I replace the flour, baking soda and salt with just the pancake mix?" I figured it wouldn't hurt to try so let's give it a go. Well, let's just say it turned out pretty amazing (I wouldn't be writing this post if it turned out bad lol). The first few times I made it, I used a real egg but again, with too much time on my hands, wondered if I could make it vegan. I always use Earth Balance vegan butter spread anyway so making the egg switch was the last major player in making it vegan. (My chocolate chips are not vegan but it's easy enough to find ones that are and it would be an easy swap.) I had a bag of neat egg in my pantry and started on making my banana bread. One tip I'd recommend is making sure your neat egg is fully blended before mixing it in to all your other ingredients. Okay I'll stop rambling and get on to the recipe now.

LAZY GIRL VEGAN(ISH) CHOCOLATE CHIP BANANA BREAD

INGREDIENTS

  • 3 ripe bananas (the more speckles, the better!)
  • 1/3 cup melted butter (I use Earth Balance but any will do)
  • 1/2 cup sugar (white, light brown or coconut sugar all work!)
  • 1 neat egg (or 1 large egg if not vegan)
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1.5 cups pancake mix
  • 3/4 cup chocolate chips

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (that's 176.667 degrees C for all my non-American friends and yes, I did have to google it.) I used a 8″x4″ loaf pan but anything close to that will work. I don't have baking spray on hand because before the last three weeks, I never really baked so I greased my pan with a little of the Earth Balance butter spread and then sprinkled it with flour. If you have a baking spray with flour in it, use that to make your life easier.
  2. In a large bowl, mash your three bananas until completely smooth if you're like me and don't want any chunks of bananas but mash less if you want little bits of banana throughout. Once your bananas are mashed to your preferred consistency, add in your melted butter then mix until combined.
  3. Now its time to add the rest of your ingredients except your chocolate chips. I add my egg in first, make sure that's all blended in, then continue with the sugar and vanilla. Once those are all thoroughly mixed in, then I add the flour. Make sure everything is all combined and there are no dry patches.
  4. Last but not least, dump in 1/2 cup of your chocolate chips. You'll want to save the last 1/4 cup for later. Mix them until they're covered with batter and distributed evenly but don't over mix.
  5. Pour the batter into your prepared baking pan and sprinkle the rest of your chips on top for extra chocolate-y goodness. Toss that bad boy into the oven & bake for an hour, or a knife inserted in center comes out clean. You should let it cool completely before slicing it but when this bread makes your whole apartment smell like a bakery, it's pretty hard to do.

To make it fully vegan, make sure your pancake mix and chocolate chips don't contain milk and that your butter doesn't have dairy in it either.