Home » Plant-Based Recipes » Healthy Baking » Easy feijoa loaf recipe
Published: · Modified: by Lauren Glucina • Naturopath, Nutritionist
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Soft and springy feijoa loaf with a creamy lemon icing if you’re feeling extra. This is a super quick and easy recipe, sweetened naturally with fresh feijoa fruit, banana and honey. The taste - out of this world!
Feijoa season is still going strong here in New Zealand and I’m here for it. This feijoa and banana loaf is the most delicious recipe, and it’s so simple to make.
Free from refined flours and sugars, butter, eggs and dairy milk – it’s suited to those on gluten free or plant-based diets, without compromising on taste.
The perfect Kiwi afternoon tea snack, with a cup of Kawakawa tea!
FYI – feijoas are also known as pineapple guavas, still, if you can’t source any, just sub for apple puree.
Feijoa taste like a combination of pear with pineapple and guava. The fruit has a grainy texture with a sweet, jelly-like centre. The fragrance is truly unique, and highly aromatic.
Jump to:
- 🌿Why you’ll love this recipe
- 🍋Key ingredients and substitutes
- 👩🍳How to make feijoa loaf
- 🧁Serving suggestion
- 🍞Storage
- 🍂More recipes using feijoas
- 📖Recipe
🌿Why you’ll love this recipe
- Quick and easy, great way to use up excess feijoas
- Heathy, gluten free and easily adjusted to suit vegans
- No stand mixer - just two bowls and a loaf pan!
- Fruity and delicious!
🍋Key ingredients and substitutes
This feijoa loaf is pretty much a banana bread with a twist - the highly fragrant feijoa fruit totally elevating the recipe.
- Mashed bananas and fresh feijoa fruit: together these are sticky enough to act as a binder in place of eggs.
- Buckwheat flour: I don’t often use buckwheat on its own in baking as the flavour can be a bit strong, but here the fruits mask the nuttiness perfectly. Buckwheat is unique in that it tends to get quite sticky and almost elastic once combined with liquids, which is just another reason why there’s no need for a binder here. It’s naturally gluten free, but you can sub for a GF flour blend here instead
- Extra-virgin olive oil: heart healthy and packed with antioxidants
- Oat milk: easily substituted for almond, cashew or rice milk
- Raw honey: you can substitute with rice malt syrup or possibly even jaggery/coconut sugar
👩🍳How to make feijoa loaf
Step one. Let’s kick this off – get the oven on – 175˚C/350˚F, and prep a loaf pan – either lightly grease or line with baking paper.
Step two. Take a large ripe and spotty banana, and mash well with a fork. Scoop the flesh from around 10 or so feijoa fruits, then mash well – we’re aiming for about a cup of pulp here.
Scrape this into a large mixing bowl and add all other wet ingredients, mix till combined.
Step three. Sift all your dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, then shake a little into the bowl of wet ingredients and mix together.
Add a little more and repeat, until there are no clumps of flour.
Step four. Pour the batter into your prepared loaf tin, then set it in the middle of the lower rack in the oven, and conventional bake (not forced fan) for about 45 minutes. I’d be checking it from the 40-minute mark – you want a knife or skewer to come out clean.
Step five. Once done, turn onto a cooling rack before using a serrated knife to cut and serve….. unless you’re extra and want to ice this baby.
🧁Serving suggestion
The only thing better than a freshly baked feijoa loaf is one slathered in a creamy frosting.
So, to make the icing of your dreams, we’ll be using the lemon cashew number from my ginger cake here.
Everything goes into the blender, then the freezer to firm up, then spread over the loaf and topped with fresh lemon or lime zest. It’s a lovely recipe, but note you do need to soak some cashews in advance.
Hope you enjoy guys, this is one of the best feijoa recipes I’ve made, and one of the only ways Hubby will eat ‘em.
🍞Storage
- Keep your freshly baked feijoa loaf in an airtight container at room temperature for several days, or in the fridge for up to a week. The fruit mixture does make it a little prone to mould if it sits out too long
- If the loaf dries out while in the fridge, just toast a slice up before enjoying
🍂More recipes using feijoas
It’s that time of year…
- Feijoa Cake
- Apple Feijoa Crumble
- Spiced Feijoa Chutney
- Feijoa Muffins
🌿Enjoyed this recipe? Leave a comment below, better yet - share a snap with me on instagram@ascensionkitchen.If you're after personalised health and nutrition advice,contact my clinic,I'd be happy to work with you.
📖Recipe
Easy Feijoa Loaf
Naturopath Lauren Glucina
This easy feijoa loaf is healthy and delicious, naturally gluten free and easily adapted to suit vegans.
5 from 5 votes
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes mins
Cook Time 45 minutes mins
Total Time 1 hour hr 5 minutes mins
Course Baking
Cuisine Australian, Kiwi, New Zealand
Servings 12
Calories 146 kcal
Equipment
Two mixing bowls
Loaf pan
Ingredients
Wet ingredients:
- ½ cup mashed banana about 1 medium-large banana
- 1 cup mashed feijoa fruit pulp from about 10 medium-sized feijoas
- ⅓ cup oat milk
- ⅓ cup honey, softened to a liquid use up to ½ cup if you plan to skip the icing
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- Juice of half a lemon
Dry ingredients:
- 1½ cups buckwheat flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt
To finish:
- Dusting of powdered sugar - can use xylitol for a sugar-free option
- Lemon cashew icing - see notes for recipe link
Instructions
Pre-heat oven at 175˚C/350˚F, conventional bake setting. Line a loaf tin with baking paper, or lightly grease with oil.
Place feijoas and bananas (both mashed well) in a large bowl with olive oil, liquid honey, oat milk and lemon juice. Mix.
Sift all dry ingredients together in a second bowl, then add little by little to the wet ingredients, stirring to combine until there are no clumps of flour.
Pour into prepared tin, and place in the middle of the lower rack in the preheated oven. Bake for about 45 minutes, check the loaf at the 40-minute mark – just bake until a skewer comes out clean.
Once cooked, place on a cake rack and allow to thoroughly cool before either icing or serving.
Video
Notes
- You can sub a gluten free flour blend for the buckwheat – if you do this, I suggest reducing or even eliminating the baking powder, as most brands will already include some
- Liquid coconut oil can be used in place of olive oil, but isn’t as healthy an option (olive oil is packed with antioxidant-rich and anti-inflammatory biophenols – and yes they’re active even once heated!)
- I haven’t made feijoa loaf without the honey, I’m going to assume a straight swap with coconut sugar or jaggery would work fine, no promises until I try it out next time! Yeah you could use rice malt syrup – perhaps go with ½ a cup instead of 1/3 cup as it’s not as sweet as honey. I think maple syrup is too light and would make the loaf too moist/crummy
- Trust me – no need for eggs, or any other vegan binders – the mashed fruit works just fine
- You could easily sub the feijoas for apple puree, or turn this into a straight banana loaf
- Recipe for the lemon cashew icing is here. When making the icing, I strongly recommend the inclusion of the organic soy lecithin, as this is what helps emulsify and thicken the mixture. Omit at your own peril!
- If you have a food-grade pure lemon or lime essential oil, then you can add a couple of drops to the icing for extra flavour
- Tip: cut with a serrated knife – less crumbs
- The dimensions of the loaf pan I used were: 23cm length x 10.5cm width
- Store your feijoa loaf in an airtight container at room temperature for a few days, the high fruit content does make it prone to mould after that point
- Nutrition facts are an estimate only, and are based on one serve. One serve is one of 12 slices (does not include icing).
Nutrition
Serving: 1sliceCalories: 146kcalCarbohydrates: 25gProtein: 2gFat: 5.4gSaturated Fat: 0.6gSodium: 142mgFiber: 3.75gSugar: 10.75gIron: 0.65mg
Keyword Feijoa dessert, Feijoa Loaf, Feijoa Loaf NZ
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About the Author
I’m Lauren, practising Naturopath, Medical Herbalist, Nutritionist, and essential oils educator in Auckland, New Zealand. I’m incredibly passionate about food as medicine, and helping connect people with the healing power of Nature.
BNatMed, AdDip NutMed, BCS, Certified FitGenes Practitioner.
