Delicious marbled banana bread which will impress children and adults alike. The recipe is easy to make, refined sugar-free, dairy-free, egg-free, gluten-free, and healthy. This moist chocolate marble bread is perfect for breakfast on weekends. Or serve it with vegan chocolate spread as dessert!
Chocolate Swirl Banana Bread
I am probably the biggest fan of vegan banana bread which is no wonder since banana is my favorite fruit! If you have overripe bananas, you can either freeze them (to make nice cream) or you can make this delicious chocolate swirl banana bread. It contains 3 large bananas which make the bread moist and soft! Not only will they add a nice flavor, but they also serve as a fantastic egg replacement.
And since I love chocolate as much as I love banana, I couldn’t resist making chocolate marble bread! If you think it’s difficult or complicated to make this swirl pattern – I can assure you it’s not. It’s actually pretty easy to make a zebra cake and it looks fun – children love it!
All you need is just one batter which you divide into two bowls. Then you add cocoa powder, and a few other ingredients to one of the bowls to make the chocolate batter. Add a few spoons of light batter into the loaf pan, then add some chocolate batter. Continue until no batter is left. It’s always a surprise to cut into the freshly baked loaf and to find out how the marble pattern turned out!
Coconut Flour Banana Bread
I made a lot of gluten free banana bread recipes in the past, but I was never 100% satisfied. It can be a challenge if you live on an island with no access to a good gluten-free flour blend, therefore I always experiment in my kitchen. However, I really love how this coconut flour banana bread turned out.
I don’t use coconut flour very often because it’s very absorbing and can dry out baked goods if used in vegan recipes without eggs. But if you mix it with other flours it can make a perfect loaf which is soft and moist!
Not only is this recipe eggless, but you can also easily make this banana bread without butter. I just added 1 tablespoon each of coconut oil to the light batter and chocolate batter and that made it soft and delicious.
The Step-By-Step Instructions
Check the 6 step-by-step photos above. For the full ingredients list, ingredient measurements, and nutritional information, then please read the printable recipe card below.
Step 1 – Add all dry ingredients to a bowl and stir until there are no clumps.
Step 2 – Blend the wet ingredients in a blender until completely smooth. You can also use a food processor.
Step 3 – Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir with a spatula or a spoon until the mixture is combined. Don’t over mix the batter
Step 4 – Divide the batter into two bowls. I recommend adding 1/3 of the batter to one bowl and 2/3 of the batter to the other bowl. Then add the ingredients for the chocolate layer to the bowl that has just 1/3 of the batter and mix with a whisk.
Step 5 – Line a loaf pan with parchment paper or grease it with a little oil (my mold measures 8 x 4 x 2.5 inches). Preheat your oven to 390 degrees F (200 degrees C).
Step 6 – To make the swirl, simply drizzle a spoon of light batter into the pan, then with a different spoon drizzle a spoon of the chocolate batter on top of it, then again the light batter, etc until no batter is left.
Bake in the oven for about 45-50 minutes (+/- 5 minutes). The dairy free banana bread is ready when a toothpick comes out almost clean (can still have some crumbs on it).
Creamy Chocolate Spread
Plain vegan banana bread is delicious, no question, but I also like to put more chocolate on top of a thick slice. You should really give it a try, it’s so yummy! I will share my Easy Chocolate Hazelnut Spread with you. Simply mix everything together and you end up with a super delicious and creamy chocolate spread.
How To Store
You can store it at room temperature during colder months for a few days. If you live in a hot climate, I definitely recommend storing it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.
You can also freeze this marbled banana bread. It’s best to put wax paper between the individual slices and store in freezer bags for up to 3 months. Let thaw overnight in the fridge or reheat in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until warmed through.
Recipe Notes
Sweetener: I used maple syrup for a refined sugar-free banana bread, however, you can also use agave syrup or your favorite liquid sweetener.
Coconut milk: I like using canned coconut milk because it makes the marble bread moist and soft due to the higher fat amount. If you don’t like coconut milk, you can use your favorite plant-based milk and add 1-2 tablespoons oil in addition.
Gluten-Free Flour: You can experiment with a different gluten-free flour blend, however, as mentioned above, coconut flour is very absorbent. That’s why you would have to use at least 1/2 a cup of a different flour (e.g. almond flour) instead of coconut flour. You can use arrowroot flour instead of tapioca flour.
Related Recipes
If you love bananas, you might also love the following vegan recipes:
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
- Marble Bundt Cake
- Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Banana Blueberry Bread
- Vegan Banana Pudding
- 3-Ingredient Banana Pancakes
- Chocolate Crepes With Banana
I hope you will like this recipe as much as I do. If you give it a try, let me know how it turned out. Please comment below and tag me with @elavegan and #elavegan if you post it on Instagram or Facebook so that I can see your vegan marbled banana bread.
Marbled Banana Bread
Ingredients
Dry ingredients:
- 1 cup (160 g) white rice flour
- 1/2 cup (50 g) tapioca flour
- 1/4 cup (33 g) coconut flour (*see recipe notes)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
Wet ingredients:
- 3 medium (350 g) ripe bananas
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) coconut milk canned
- 1/3 cup (110 g) maple syrup
- 3 tsp lime juice
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp (14 g) coconut oil melted
Chocolate layer
- 6 tbsp (40 g) cocoa powder
- 3 tbsp (20 g) coconut sugar
- 1/3 cup (80 ml) coconut milk canned
- 1 tbsp (14 g) coconut oil melted
Instructions
- Put the dry ingredients (rice flour, tapioca flour, coconut flour, and baking soda + baking powder) in a big bowl and stir until there are no clumps.
- Blend the wet ingredients (bananas, coconut milk, maple syrup, lime juice, vanilla extract, coconut oil) in a food processor or blender.
- Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir with a spatula until the mixture is just combined.
- Split the batter into two bowls, so that you have about 1/3 of the batter in one bowl and 2/3 of the batter in the other bowl.
- Add the ingredients for the chocolate layer (cocoa powder, coconut sugar, coconut milk, coconut oil) to the bowl with 1/3 of the batter and mix with a whisk.
- Line a mold with parchment paper or grease it with a little bit of coconut oil. My mold measures 8 x 4 x 2.5 inches and preheat your oven to 390 degrees F (200 degrees C).
- For the marble effect/swirl, just drizzle a tsp of light batter into your mold, then with a different spoon drizzle a tsp of the chocolate batter on top of it, then again the light batter, etc until no batter is left.
- Bake in the oven for about 45-50 minutes (+/- 5 minutes). The cake is ready when a toothpick comes out almost clean (can still have some crumbs on it).
- Enjoy your marbled banana bread with a chocolate spread!
Notes
Video Of The Recipe
- Flour: You can use a different gluten-free flour blend, however, if you sub coconut flour for a different flour then you need to increase the amount of flour. Coconut flour is very absorbent, that's why you would have to use at least 1/2 a cup of a different flour instead of coconut flour. My gluten-free flour blend made it fluffy and resulted in great texture and I totally recommend it.
- Sweetener: I used maple syrup for a refined sugar-free version, however, you can also use agave syrup or your favorite liquid sweetener.
- Coconut milk: I prefer using canned coconut milk because it makes the bread moist and soft due to the higher fat amount. If you don't like coconut milk, you can use your favorite plant-based milk and add 1-2 tablespoons oil in addition.
- The recipe makes one loaf which I cut into 10 pieces. Nutrition facts are for one piece.
Nutrition information is an estimate and has been calculated automatically
Vanessa
Hi 🙂
What can you substitute the tapioca flour for?
It’s not available in my country.
Thanks xx
Ela
Hi, you could use regular starch (corn starch or potato starch). 🙂
Kate
We had so much fun making this marbled banana bread! It turned out beautifully. Thank you for sharing this awesome recipe. Will definitely be checking back for more recipes.
Ela
I loved seeing how you made my recipe in your Instagram stories. So much fun and it really came out so pretty! Super happy you loved it 🙂
Amanda
I made this recipe many times. It’s so good! It’s so super easy to make too!
Ela
So glad you like my recipe, Amanda. Thanks for your kind feedback 🙂
Rachel
Hey Ela!
Can I use self raising flour in exchange for the tapioca and rice flour and the baking powder and soda to reduce the amount of ingredients used? It’s a lot cheaper In aus than buying all different flours.
Thanks!!
Ela
Hi, Rachel! Yes, I am sure this would work just fine. I never tried it out though, so I cannot tell you if the banana bread will turn out exactly the same (consistency, flavor etc). If you give it a try then please report back. 🙂
Krista Simpson
We are AIP so I substituted the white rice flour for tigernut + 2T cassava (only because I didn’t have a full cup of tigernut), and instead of baking powder added a bit more soda and 1/4 tsp cream of tartar – its moist, decadent and delicious!!
Ela
That sounds amazing! I am glad it turned out so delicious!! 🙂
Olga
Ela I”ve just made it and it’s so delicious! I only changed tapioca flour with potato starch as you wrote in one comment and it is still great! I baked it for 5 minutes longer but I guess it depends on the oven. Thank you and good luck!!! ????????
Ela
Thats awesome Olga! Makes me so happy that you liked my recipe. Thanks for this great feedback.
Mika
I made this delicious banana bread twice and was perfect everytime. I made this dessert for my Christmas party to show my friends vegan desserts are yummy, and they all agreed! My gluten intolerance friends were overjoyed that they could eat it without any worries!
Super easy and yummy!
Ela
That’s awesome Mika! I am so happy to hear you and your friends enjoyed my marbled banana bread. ???? Thanks for your feedback. 🙂
Ellen
When using the coconut milk- do you use the canned milk or can you use the boxes- like how they sell shelf almond milk)?
Also im going to make it but my daughter is allergic to all nuts- (i find it a bit tough trying to go vegan when i cant make things too much using nuts. Can you make some posts if possible what to use as an exception? All your recipes looks so good!!! Thanks for sharing!
Ela
Hi Ellen, yes like mentioned in the recipe I used canned coconut milk. You can use almond milk but since canned coconut milk has more fat, the banana bread might turn out a bit dry if you use almond milk. You could add another tbsp of oil if you want to use almond milk (or any other plant based milk with less fat). Regarding your other question, you can use sunflower seeds (or any other high fat seeds) instead of nuts.
Avi
This looks so good, I can’t wait to make it. Just one question, is the coconut milk you used from a can, the thick milk, or from a carton?
Thanks,
Avi
Ela
Hello Avi, I used canned coconut milk (which has a higher fat content than coconut milk from a carton). You could try using coconut milk from a carton but the banana bread might turn out a bit more dry or less tasty. Hope this helps. 🙂
Simone
Hallo Ela, ich habe diesen Kuchen nun schon zum 2.Mal gebacken! Er ist einfach köstlich und kam sogar auf einem Familienfest gut an! Beste Grüße Simone
Ela
Hallo Simone, ich freue mich sehr, dass dir mein Bananenbrot so gut geschmeckt hat und auch gut beim Familienfest ankam. 🙂
nazokashii
Oh my, I finally got around to making this bread yesterday, and it was so, so delicious! For me, everything went beautifully, and every single thing about it was perfect, from the consistency to the taste :3 I can highly recommend trying it out 😀
I actually did some small modifications, due to not having all the exact ingredients, but fortunately it turned out really, really well nevertheless 🙂 What I did was using quinoa flour instead of rice flour, potato starch instead pf tapioca flour, lemon juice instead of lime juice, agave syrup instead of maple syrup, and dark brown sugar instead of coconut sugar. When substituting, I just made sure that the weights were the same, so I don’t know if maybe it wasn’t exactly 1:1 when it comes to milliliters (except for when there wasn’t any weight given, of course). Oh, and I actually forgot to mention this in the Instagram post I made yesterday, but I actually didn’t have any baking soda, so I just used that much more baking powder as well x3 Everything else was according to the recipe 🙂
I am so happy that I tried it out, and want to say thank you again to Ela for sharing this amazing recipe 😀 I am so happy that I decided to make this my first ever banana bread 🙂
Ela
Awww I can’t thank you enough for this beautiful feedback. 🙂 It really makes me so happy that you enjoyed this marbled banana bread. Also thank you for sharing your subs, this might help some other people who don’t have all ingredients on hand. Your picture on Instagram looked great too! Have a wonderful weekend 🙂
asia
is the coconut milk the one from the can or the carton one please?xx
Ela
I used canned coconut milk
Amy
Hi Ela, I tried making this today but the white parts were quite gummy and the chocolate parts were very tender, I followed the grams as opposed to the cups, do you think it may be due to the conversion of the flour from cups to grams? The flavour was delicious though so I would like to work out why the texture was not quite right and try to make it again. I don’t think it was undercooked as it was golden all around and had a nice crust too, with only certain parts gummy. Any help would be appreciated, thanks!
Ela
Hi Amy, thanks for trying out my recipe. It’s totally fine that you followed the grams because this is what I did as well (I do both, cups and grams, but grams are more exact). Did you use the same flours (rice flour, tapioca and coconut flour) and if yes which brands? What was the consistency of the batter? Was the consistency of the white batter more or less equal to the dark batter? Mine had almost the same consistency, like a thick waffle batter. I hope this helps and I am looking forward to hear from you again 🙂
Amy
Hi Ela, I used Bob’s Mill brand for all of the fours: white rice, tapioca and coconut. But no the consistency was quite different- the chocolate one slightly runnier, the white one was like a thick waffle batter as you described but with a moussy feel to it. The only difference I think is that I used organic white cane sugar and not coconut sugar, and for the maple syrup I did 85g and not 110g, but somehow my chocolate batter was runnier. I will try again and try to work out what went wrong but I definitely scaled everything very precisely! The flavours were very good so I can’t wait to get it right next time 🙂
Ela
Hi again Amy, I guess then it must be either the flour what made the difference or the cane sugar. Bob’s Red Mill flour doesn’t contain any coconut flour as far as I know (there are many different flours in the mix like garbanzo bean flour, potato starch etc.). Coconut flour thickens up the batter pretty nicely that’s why I used it. I am glad you like the flavor of my marbled banana bread though. Maybe you can give it another try eventually and use the flours which I used in the recipe. Please keep me informed. ❤️
Kirsten
So proud of you and this amazing blog !! It’s my goal to make this bread and have it turn out as amazing as yours ! Well done Ela .. Love to you <3
Ela
Thank you my sweet friend, I am so happy about your support. Sending you and your kids a big hug 🙂
Anna
Wow Ela!!! LOVE what I’m seeing here! And I don’t only mean this banana bread (as obviously it looks and sounds delicious!!!), I mean a whole blog looks lovely! You must have been a super busy bee with all of this!!! Great work girl, and great to finally see you having your own blog! Excited for the future!!! x
Ela
Thank you so, so much Anna! How lovely of you to check out my blog and leave such a kind comment. And oh yes, it was so much work, especially with the Multisite. Sending you a big hug 🙂
Shir
It looks just fantastic Ela! Wish I could try it…any way to replace the bananas?
Much love!
Keep up the good work❤
Shir
Ela
Hey Shir, thank you so much! Great question, maybe try apple sauce instead of bananas? Please report back if you try it out 🙂
Nisha / @rainbowplantlife
Yay for your blog! This bread is my favorite! So dreamy and decadent.
Ela
Thank you so much Nisha, I am so glad you like it. Sending you a big hug 🙂
TheSmallSeed
Congratulations Ela on your beautiful blog!! It really looks fantastic!! So much of your time and hard
work has paid off!! I Also loved reading and learning more about you..Awesome job!!
Ela
Thank you so much Chloe, you are so kind to leave such a nice comment. I am really glad you like my blog. Much love to you 🙂
Betsy
Where can I find your recipe for crispy oven spinach tacos?
And
Crispy burritos roasted potatoes,avocado, beans
Thank you ?
Ela
Tacos: https://elavegan.com/oven-baked-spinach-tacos/
Burritos: https://elavegan.com/vegan-breakfast-burritos-recipe/
To make it easier in the future, you can simply use the search function. 🙂
Gabriele
What is tapioca flour? I know the gum that is put in the frying pan and stuffed and the sprinkles sweet and sour. Which one do you use?
Ela
I can recommend this one: https://www.bobsredmill.com/tapioca-flour.html If you can’t get it where you live try either potato starch or corn starch. Let me know if you try it out 🙂
Alexandra
Can I use arrowroot instead?
Ela
Instead of? Tapioca? Yes, that would work.
Verena
Glückwunsch zu deinem Blog liebe Ela! Ist sehr schön geworden! Da werde ich öfters mal nach deinen Rezepten schauen!! LG Verena
Ela
Vielen Dank liebe Verena, ich freue mich so sehr über deinen netten Kommentar. Sende dir ganz liebe Grüße zurück 🙂