Gingerbread Banana Bread – Soft and moist gingerbread combines with sweet homemade banana bread for the ultimate holiday baked good.
Maple Syrup And Agave – Are They Better For You Than Sugar?
Pretty much on a weekly basis, readers ask me what I think of agave, maple syrup, and other alternatives to white sugar.
Are they healthier?
Are they good for you?
Should you replace white sugar with maple syrup?
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While these sweeteners might be a little less unhealthy than table sugar, that doesn’t mean they are good for you.
Sugar is still sugar, and it’s a good idea to cut back no matter what type of sugar you are using, whether it’s maple syrup, agave, honey, coconut sugar, brown sugar, or white table sugar.
I keep this in mind when developing recipes, and most or all of the recipes on my site that call for any type of sugar will have significantly less sugar than traditional versions of the same recipes.
There is, however, one exception: blackstrap molasses.
Blackstrap molasses is by far my favorite sweetener, not just for its gingerbread flavor but also because it offers an incredible number of health benefits packed into one tiny tablespoon, including copper, manganese, magnesium, potassium, and 20% of the RDA for both calcium and iron.
If you’re new to molasses, be sure to try my recipe for Vegan Pecan Pie.
Especially around Christmastime, I try to add molasses to as many recipes as I can.
And since I’ve already done regular gingerbread, with my 3 Secret Ingredient Gingerbread Recipe, making banana bread seemed like the logical next step.
If you like gingerbread and bananas, you will love this vegan gingerbread banana bread!
Adapted from my Healthy Banana Bread
Gingerbread Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups mashed banana
- 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup milk of choice OR oil
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup, agave, or honey
- 1/4 cup molasses – blackstrap or regular
- 1 1/2 tbsp vinegar
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
- 3/4 tsp each: baking powder and salt
- 2 cups spelt, white, or bob’s gf flour (260g)
- optional pinch stevia or 3 tbsp sugar for more of a dessert bread
- optional 1/2 cup raisins or crushed walnuts
Instructions
- Grease a 9x5 loaf pan very well, going up the sides. (Or line the pan with parchment.) Preheat oven to 350 F. Whisk the first 6 ingredients together in a bowl, then set aside. In a large bowl, stir remaining ingredients together very well. Pour wet over dry, stir just until evenly mixed, and smooth into the loaf pan. Bake on the center rack for 33 minutes – then do not open the oven even to peek, but turn off the heat. Let sit in the closed oven for 10 additional minutes. Remove and let cool completely before going around the sides with a knife and inverting onto a plate or cutting from the pan. Store leftover slices in the fridge for 2-3 days or freeze for up to a month.View Nutrition Facts
Notes
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Love this recipe! I ended up making 12 muffins instead. I omitted the cloves (didn’t have any), used the oil option, and the added 3 T (brown) sugar. I baked them in my toaster oven for about 18 minutes. They came out perfect; nice and fluffy. Even my hubby, who doesn’t like gingerbread, raved about them. Also, made our house smell like fall. It’s a definite keeper! 🙂
I made this as written and used milk instead of oil. Used spelt flour and did add walnuts and no additional sugars, however may cut maple syrup in half next time and the cloves. Would like to try to add chopped dates with the walnuts if I cut back the maple syrup. I was pleasantly surprised it turned out perfectly with the oven off for 10 minutes. Came out of the pan easy peasy. I used 2 medium size ceramic loaf pans. Will cut into slices and freeze for a nice treat. A nice powdered sugar icing would be nice if serving to guests or just a dusting of powdered sugar.
Katie thank you, never thought this would work like charm.
This was very good. It tastes like gingerbread (which I love) much more so than banana bread.
Made this today! I used milk instead of oil, spelt flour and maple syrup. I used 4 medium size bananas.I did not add the extra sugar and I added a lot of raisins. I soaked the raisins in boiling water to plump them up. I made them as muffins. Baked at 350° 20 minutes with 5 minutes in the oven with the oven off. They tasted good. Not very spicy. I might up the spices next time. I have been making all sorts of Katy’s recipes lately. Thanks Katy for all of these great free recipes!
I would recommend adding the optional sugar as mine wasn’t sweet enough for my taste. I also would recommend the applesauce muffins as an alternative. I think they are more moist and taste better.