Spelt Banana Bread with Pecans and Chocolate Chunks

Spelt banana bread is naturally vegan and made extra delicious with chopped pecans and chocolate chunks. 10 ingredients and simple to make.

Cuisine American, Dairy-free, Egg-Free, Vegan

Diet Vegan, Vegetarian

Keyword banana, banana bread, cinnamon, fall, nutmeg, spelt flour, vanilla, winter

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 55 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes

Servings 9x5 loaf

Calories 431kcal

2 cups light spelt flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon fine sea salt
¾ cup dairy-free chocolate chunks
¾ cup pecan halves, chopped
4-5 very ripe bananas, peeled (1 ½ cups mashed banana total)
½ cup maple syrup
½ cup melted coconut oil (or avocado oil, sunflower oil, melted vegan butter etc, plus extra)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9x5 loaf pan and then line it with parchment paper. Lightly grease the parchment as well and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the spelt flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, sea salt, chocolate chunks, and chopped pecans. Stir with a spatula to evenly mix.
In an upright blender, combine the bananas, maple syrup, coconut oil, and vanilla. Blend on high until totally smooth and creamy.
Pour the pureed banana mixture into the large bowl with the spelt flour mixture. Use your spatula to get all of the banana mixture you can out of the blender. Gently stir and fold everything together until JUST combined.
Scrape the spelt banana bread batter into the prepared loaf pan, smoothing the top with your spatula. You can garnish the top with extra pecans and chocolate chunks if you like. Bang the filled loaf pan on the counter a couple times to evenly distribute the batter and to fill all spaces of the loaf pan.
Bake the spelt banana bread for 50-55 minutes, or until a cake tester/paring knife inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean. Allow the banana bread to cool thoroughly before slicing and enjoying.

You could easily substitute the following flours 1-to-1 for the spelt: whole wheat pastry flour, whole kamut flour, einkorn flour, whole wheat flour or whole grain spelt flour (being mindful of the fact that whole grain flours will make the loaf more dense), all purpose flour, and gluten-free all purpose flour.
Any add-ins you like are great! Use up to 1 ½ cups of chopped nuts, seeds, chocolate chunks/chips, or chopped dried fruit. You could also add other warm spices like nutmeg, cardamom etc.
You can mash the bananas by hand if you wish! I just like to get them thoroughly pureed in the blender.
This recipe is inspired by both Lily Diamond’s and Sarah Britton’s banana breads.
If you like this loaf, I bet you'll love my zucchini bread recipe too.