I feel like I’m baking Banana Shokupan every weekend.
That’s how much I’m obsessed with this bread.
The smell and the flavor of the banana in this bread is just amazing.
This time I added cardamom, and the combination of cardamom and banana was fantastic.
Toasted.
I wish you could smell it!
I like baking, and you probably know but I enjoy baking bread a lot.
But bagel is one of my favorite bread to make.
It’s easy and quick.
The whole process is fun, from forming, boiling, to watching them rise in the oven.
And they almost never fail!
I’ve said this before, but Hoji-Tea is the next Macha!
The trend has already started in Japan, and you find a lot of interesting and delicious Hoji-Tea sweets and baked goods there.
Last time we were in Japan about a year ago, we got to enjoy some wonderful Hoji-Tea sweets, such as Hoji-Tea tiramisu and Hoji-Tea ice cream.
Hoji-Tea is a popular Japanese roasted tea, and it has a distinct roasted flavor.
Looking good, just out of the oven.
At this point I knew this turned out exactly how I wanted.
Silky soft!
So good!!
I loved the beautiful earthy color, too.
I liked the Banana Shokuapan (a few posts back) so much that I decided to make it again, but a slightly different version this time.
I added cocoa this time.
Banana and cocoa.
No way that could go wrong, right?
Turned out absolutely delicious!!
I just had a slice toasted this morning, and it was SO GOOD!
This may be my new favorite!
Slightly sweet.
With banana flavor!
I now get out of the bed looking forward to a banana toast for breakfast.
It’s a Shokupan pullman loaf.
But with tofu.
I actually haven’t tasted it, but it looks, feels, and smells really good.
Soft and moist.
I can’t wait to try it tomorrow morning!
I don’t bake rolls often, but I bake them when I want to make certain type of sandwiches.
So yes, you can expect to see pictures of sandwiches soon.
It’s hard to see from outside, but the inside is like the sunshine!
What makes these rolls golden?
One of my favorite spies, turmeric.
Banana bread has always been a mystery to me.
It’s called “bread,” but it always tasted like dessert.
So I hesitated to eat it for a meal.
Since I liked the idea of using banana for bread, I decided to make banana bread which is not overly sweet.
I did not want to add extra sweetness to my banana bread.
The only sweetness I wanted was the natural sweetness from the bananas.
Of course it was going to be vegan.
That was given.
But I thought it would be fun to make it gluten-free as well.
I was so happy with how it turned out.
Another thing I wanted for this banana bread to have was a height.
Many banana breads are baked in a large pan and they are rather short.
I wanted mine to be tall, and the use of this pan achieved it.
I was too excited to wait for the bread to be completely cool.
Who could when your kitchen smells this good?!
Crispy outside, moist and hearty inside, and not too sweet, but super flavorful.
This was exactly the banana bread I have wanted for so many years.
I’m so pleased that I will leave the recipe here.
Vegan Gluten-Free No-Extra-Sugar-Added Cardamom Banana Bread
3 ripe bananas (medium)
1 tablespoon flax meal
2.5 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon banana liqueur
3 tablespoons melted coconut oil
3/4 cup soy milk
1/2 teaspoon or more ground cardamom
1 1/4 almond meal
1 cup white rice flour
1/4 cup corn starch
1 1/3 oats
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
Now this banana bread is perfect for breakfast.
Toasted and buttered.
YUM!!
It was supposed to be Mathca “Swirl” Shokupan, but the final result did not show the swirl well.
The Matcha part looks rather like a monster, so I decided to name this Monster Shokupan.
Other than the design inside, this bread turned out great!
It definitely satisfies my craving for the Matcha flavor.
Japanese Pullman bread called Shokupan is a simple bread.
Despite that (or because of that), little things do matter.
For the longest time I thought milk instead of water results in softer bread, but apparently that is not the case.
This is the first time I used water instead of milk.
And it turned out great!
