Vegan Banana Bread

A couple of days ago we had a little taste of the changing seasons; it was 30 degrees and we had a few inches of snow so I made my favorite winter staple, banana bread! This is so good warm out of the oven and you can use up all the over-ripe bananas you've got kickin' around the kitchen. I just pop them in the freezer and then I'm always ready for banana bread making (frozen bananas are really good in smoothies too!). I used this recipe from Post Punk Kitchen as a base and then tweaked it a lot. The measurements for the crumb topping aren't exact, just go with what you feel, making sure there is enough melted butter to dry ingredients ratio so that it isn't too dry.
It's sunny and warm here again so perhaps I need to get started on some of those summery smoothies!

Vegan Banana Bread

Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup White Sugar
1/2 Cup Earth Balance (or other butter substitute)
3 Ripe Bananas, Mashed
2 Cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
1/4 Cup Rice Milk, mixed with 1 Tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Tsp Vanilla extract
1 Tsp Cinnamon
1/2 Tsp Ground Cloves
1/2 Tsp Nutmeg
1/2 Tsp Ginger
small handful of crystallized ginger, chopped
1 Cup vegan chocolate chips (optional)

Topping:
4 Tbsp Melted Earth Balance
1/2 Cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1/2 Cup Oats
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1/4 Cup Pecans, Chopped
cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, to taste
small handful crystallized ginger, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray a 8×4 bread pan with non stick cooking spray, or lightly coat with margarine.

Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, spices, and ginger.

Cream together the margarine and sugars. Add bananas, soy milk and vanilla.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry. Mix well. Add chocolate chips. Mix together ingredients for crumb topping. Pour batter into pan. Top with crumb topping. Bake for an hour to an hour 10 minutes.
Enjoy!