This Gingerbread Banana Bread is a soft, moist, and super flavorsome sweet loaf, perfect for a Christmas breakfast. Its crumb has all the flavors of gingerbread cookies with the softness of banana bread.
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Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a 9-inch x 5-inch loaf pan with parchment paper. Slightly oil the paper and pan with oil spray or coconut oil. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, mash the ripe bananas with a fork or the paddle attachment of your stand mixer. Mash until almost no lumps show. It must be very runny for an ultra-moist texture. Measure 1 cup + 1/2 cup of mashed bananas - if extra, freeze for later.
Whisk in light olive oil, molasse, vanilla extract, brown sugar, salt, and gingerbread spices: ginger, cinnamon, and allspice. Whisk until smooth and well combined.
Fold in all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and stir with a rubber spatula until a smooth consistent banana bread batter forms.
Transfer the batter to the prepared loaf pan.
Bake the bread on the center rack of the oven at 350°F (180°C) until a pick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean - about 55 to 65 minutes. You can add a piece of foil on top of the pan after 30 minutes to prevent the banana bread from browning too fast.
Let the bread cool down on a wire rack for 2 hours before slicing or decorating.
Notes
Note 1: Equivalent to 3 large ripe bananas. Pick some with black spots on the skin for perfect sweetness.Note 2: You can also use any oil with a light taste, like almond oil, light avocado oil, or light olive oil. Watch out if using coconut oil, when melted and in contact with cold fruit puree, it forms lumps. Note 3: Molasses add moisture and the typical flavor you expect from anything gingerbread. If you really can't find molasses, swap them for maple syrup. The bread will be lighter in color.Note 4: You can use the same amount of white spelt or whole wheat flour.Note 5: You can substitute it for ground cloves or more cinnamon.Gluten-Free: Use 1 cup of all-purpose gluten-free flour with added gum (Bob's Red Mill's all-purpose GF blend is good) and add 1/2 cup of ultra-fine almond flour. Make sure your baking powder is gluten-free as well.Decoration Idea: make one batch of my vegan vanilla frosting and spread it on top of the cooled banana bread. Add homemade gingerbread man on top using either my almond flour gingerbread recipe for a gluten-free option or my vegan gingerbread recipeStorage: Store at room temperature for up to 3 days or up to 5 days in the fridge in a sealed container. It can be frozen and thawed the day before at room temperature.