Vegan and No-oil Banana Coconut Loaf
For Greeks and other Orthodox Christians, Easter Sunday is preceded by seven weeks of fasting. This requires the faithful to avoid eating animal products (excepting some shellfish), and even prohibits oil on certain days.
My recipe produces a moist and flavoursome loaf and, despite the sugar, not too sweet. It contains no oil and it is vegan, so it is suitable for anyone doing a strict Orthodox fast for Easter.
1 ½ cups plain (all purpose) flour
½ cup self-raising wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp soda bicarbonate
Pinch salt
1 cup coconut cream
¾ cup brown sugar
¼ cup maple syrup
3 small or 2 large bananas
¼ cup desiccated coconut
A little cinnamon or vanilla
Line a loaf tin (approx 25cm x 10cm) with baking paper. Preheat oven to 180 deg C (moderate oven).
Sift together first 5 (dry) ingredients (but be sure to add back in any of the wheat husk sifted out). Mash the bananas as coursely as you like.
In a bowl, whisk together about a 1/3 of the bananas, the coconut cream, sugar, maple syrup and vanilla or cinnamon until slightly thick, light and increased in volume. Gently stir in remaining bananas and coconut, and then fold in flours lightly until totally incorporated.
Spoon mix into the loaf tin and bake for about 45 minutes at 180 deg c, until brown and cooked through.
