vegan chocolate chip banana bread

I haven't been here in a while!  I do, actually, reference my recipes here pretty often, so I guess it makes sense to add to it since I have a little time and some new recipes maybe.

My sister has recently slid into eating mostly a mostly plant based, vegan diet, so when I wanted to make a treat with some overripe bananas yesterday I decided to reach a little outside my comfort zone and make something she could eat as well.

I adjusted this recipe a little bit from the Vegan Chocolate Chip Banana Bread recipe on the Food Network site, mostly because of what I had available in the cabinets at home.

I think it turned out pretty well - not too dry at all, although it is a bit dense.  Still, I enjoyed it, I'd probably make it again.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup apple sauce (this is the binding agent - the original recipe said 1 tbsp ground flax and 3 tbsp water, but since I didn't have/couldn't find any of that in the closet, I went apple sauce instead.  It seemed fine to me)
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (I actually used whole wheat PASTY flour, not sure if that made much of a difference.  The recipe said whole wheat flour instead of spelt flour, but what was what I could find)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 2 ripe bananas
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
• 3/4 cup coconut sugar
• 1/3 cup soy milk (the recipe said non-dairy milk, so I assume whatever you have on hand would be fine, but that's what I used)
• 1/2 semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 tsp coconut sugar (to sprinkle on top)

Steps: 

• Preheat oven to 375F
• Combine all dry ingredients in mixing bowl and whisk together (flours, salt, cinnamon, baking powder)
• Mash bananas in a separate bowl - I don't mind if the bananas aren't pureed as the original recipe specifies, I think a few small banana chunks in the bread adds character, but it's up to you.  Definitely get a good mash though.
• Add the apple sauce, vanilla, coconut oil, sugar, and soy milk to the bananas and mix well
• Add the wet to the dry mix and gently fold in, only until it's mixed
• Fold in the chocolate chips - just one or two folds, don't over mix
• Grease a bread pan with a little bit of coconut oil - I just smear it around the bottom and sides with my fingers generally
• Pour mixture into the bread pan (although to be honest mine was pretty thick, almost like a cookie dough, so it was more of a scooping than a pouring like most quick breads I'm used to) and even out, sprinkle with coconut sugar.  I also sprinkled some salt on the top, and I think next time I'll add even a little more than I did - I like that salty sweet combo
• Bake at 375F for 50 minutes

I don't even have any serving suggestions because I just ate it straight out of the oven.  I'm sure someone could share a fun vegan topping though!