Your favorite spiced tea transformed into a soft, frosted, date-sweet slice–this healthy Chai Spiced Quick Bread is the perfect cozy sweet treat! Vegan, gluten-free, oil-free.
A quick bread without frosting I can handle. Some quick breads are possibly even better that way. But a frosting without a quick bread or a cake or some sort of soft, baked spot to call home…we can’t let that happen! So with all that creamy vanilla frosting from yesterday’s post on hand, I really had no choice but to do a bit of fall-flavored bread-baking.
While I do like coffee, I don’t drink it regularly. It’s not a habit I want to start, so I only have it if I am at some sort of cute cozy cafe where someone much more skilled will make it for me. But if there is a chai latte on the menu I will pick that in an instant over any sort of coffee beverage. And while I’ve been known to drink a non-iced chai latte even in the middle of summer, it’s these chillier months when the flavors of warm chai tea are the most enticing.
The spices that make up chai seem to vary a bit depending on who you ask or what brand of tea you are using. Cinnamon, cardamom, and ginger are always in there, but the rest can vary to include allspice, cloves, anise, black pepper, or all of the above. To avoid complete spice jar overwhelm, I stuck with cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, and cloves. I would’ve added in anise as well, since I love that licorice-y flavor, but I didn’t have any on hand–ground or flower-shaped form.
In addition to the ground spices, I also used actual chai tea in this recipe to bump up the spice and cover any I left out. Since date paste is the sweetener and base for this quick bread recipe, I just swapped out the usual water for blending with chai tea. Easy and extra flavorful!
And all those lovely spices mingling in every soft, crumbly, spiced slice makes this quick bread the perfect pair for a thick layer of frosting…
Now I certainly wouldn’t say no to a hot chai mug alongside my slice of chai bread either if anyone here is really good at latte making and just wants to send one my way! Nope, no takers? Okay fine, I’ll make it for myself. As long as you go make this quick bread for yourself. And be sure to tag me @feastingonfruit and #feastingonfruit if you do!
Chai Spiced Quick Bread
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 8 slices 1x
Description
A spiced tea favorite transformed into a soft, frosted, date-sweet slice–this healthy Chai Spiced Quick Bread is the perfect cozy sweet treat! Vegan, gluten-free, oil-free.
Ingredients
- 12 pitted medjool dates
- 1 cup prepared chai tea
- 1 1/4 cup oat flour
- ¼ cup tapioca starch
- 1/4 cup nondairy milk
- 2 tsps baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ginger
- 1/2 tsp cardamom
- 1/4 tsp cloves
- Optional: Low-Fat Vegan Vanilla Frosting
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Pour the chai tea over the dates and soak for 10 minutes. Blend the chai tea, dates, lemon juice, non-dairy milk, and vanilla on high until smooth.
- In a large mixing bowl combine the dry ingredients and mix briefly.
- Add the date mixture. Stir to combine.
- Lightly oil or line a loaf pan and pour in your batter, smoothing out the top.
- Bake for 35 minutes at 350F.
- Cool completely before frosting and slicing. Keep in the fridge. It is best fresh and will dry out over time.
Notes
This bread is not very sweet. If you want a sweeter loaf, you can add 1/4 cup maple syrup and an extra 1/4 cup oat flour to make up for the extra moisture.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 179
- Sugar: 24g
- Fat: 2g
- Saturated Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 41g
- Fiber: 3g
- Protein: 3g
Click Below To Pin
I’m so in love with this bread already! The texture, the frosting, the spices, the ingredient list – just all of it <3 Extra excited that I have everything on hand so I can whip this up!! I've been craving a nice cozy loaf, but I'm no good at saving bananas for bread so this is just so perfect.
Also have some maple sea salt ice cream in the freezer that I think belongs on top of a toasted slice of this *heart eyes emoji x100*
MAPLE SEA SALT ICE CREAM!??!! Oh wow I need that in my life right now, on top of this or just with a big spoon–I’m up for either! Oh I have to buy a special bunch of bananas and put it in a special spot to ever have any left for baking so I know what you mean 😀 Happy cozy baking, still dreaming about your cinnamon roll!
Hi would you reckon GF plain flour would work in place of oat flour? Also I don’t have tapioca so would corn starch or Arrowroot starch do the job (which of the 2 would be best?)☺️;
You could try them with GF flour! If you do that though you won’t need the starch, just use all GF flour 🙂
Oooooh, now we are talking lady!! Chai and cinnamon and pumpkin spice are all pretty much what I live for in life, haha! I love, love chai anything. It is actually my favorite tea to drink, so I imagine a nice hot mug of tea to drink with this would just make my chai dreams come true, haha! It’s beautiful and the texture looks awesome and I bet the dates do a good job of keeping it moist! I need to go read your frosting post next…I just saw it on Instagram. I really need to try a japanese sweet potato since I never have because my first thought would be that I would think it tastes like all potato, but I’ve heard that japanese potatoes are really different. This is such a pretty loaf and just perfect for the holidays!
My favorite too–extra spice please! I may even prefer this blend of spices to pumpkin spice, although that’s a tough call. It’s not as exclusively seasonal though, so that’s nice. Although I know pumpkin spice season is year round for you haha 🙂 I have been thinking of you and hope you are doing and feeling okay <3
CHAI!!!!!!! You had me at chai, and of course that dreamy frosting! I am a chai tea addict. There’s a local company here that makes a tea called “Cinnamonious Chai” and it is heavenly – we make lattes with it quite a bit. I’ll bring the latte if you bring this bread 😉 Looks amazing, Natalie! I guess I missed your frosting post…need to go check it out! <3
Just the name “Cinnamonious Chai” and I already know I will love it! Plus creativity points. I am an abysmal latte maker (it’s either not hot enough or not frothy enough or not sweet enough…I can never win!) so that’s a deal I would make in an instant. I drank so many chai lattes/drinks when I was in Oregon, there are lots of good coffee shops up there. I’ve made a few tea-less warm chai mugs lately too with just spices and maple syrup and coconut milk–so yum 🙂 Thanks Mandy!
Oh, I see whatcha did there.. 😉 Haha. Ya know, you’d pretty much be doing the frosting a huge disservice to not find it a cozy home atop this amazing quick bread. Really. 🙂 Coffee: how can we be besties without me knowing this about you?? And woah… when we hang out you might be a bit jarred by how much coffee I drink. But then I’ll just place a big, steaming cup of chai in front of you and all will be forgotten. 😉 I’ll bring the chai lattes, you bring the bread! 😉 Can’t wait to chat this weekend! xo
Yes you get me!! We certainly can’t have homeless frostings just wandering around, they deserve creature comforts too, of course 😉 Always looking out for those in need, that’s me haha! I’m open to coffee, no judgement, just not a regular part of my life. I LOVE the smell of it, so maybe hanging around you would be perfect I can just enjoy the aroma 🙂 Make that milk on top extra frothy please! Yes yes, chat we shall <3
This looks delicious 🙂 I don’t have any tapioca – is it possible to substitute for something else (plain all-purpose flour, for instance?)
If you use AP flour for all of the flour than the tapioca isn’t necessary since you have gluten in there to do the binding job. Or you can simply substitute cornstarch one-for-one in place of the tapioca and leave the oat flour in 🙂
Thanks for the quick reply! I’ll try it with flour and see how it goes… 🙂
Sounds great! Is there a substitute for oat flour? Perhaps coconut flour?
Coconut flour is really tricky in baking, I’m afraid it won’t work here. All purpose, spelt, or a gluten-free blend are the only others I can be pretty confident would work, almond flour may work as well but it would take some tweaking. Sorry, there’s no easy sub!
I can almost smell my mother’s kitchen full of chai spices. Love the aroma of these spices, and I can only imagine how heavenly your kitchen smells. Love this recipe, Natalie!
I absolutely adore the smell too, I just made another batch today and didn’t even want to leave the kitchen while it was baking and miss out on all those wonderful spiced aromas 🙂 Thanks for stopping by Nisha!
Chai ANYTHING. I love. Bread form? EVEN BETTER. Wondering…would potato starch work instead of tapioca??
I know cornstarch would, not positive about potato starch since I don’t work with it very often but since it’s a small amount I imagine yes. Yes me too, chai is amazing!!
Tha page for the vanilla frosting recipe does not exist. Thanks for this amazing recipe anyway.
Oh no! It is just broken, I will fix it right now. Frosting is here: https://www.feastingonfruit.com/low-fat-vegan-vanilla-frosting/
This looks absolutely wonderful Natalie, I can also smell this beautiful loaf through the screen! Gorgeous photos too!
The smell is like it’s own treat! Ah how I love fall/winter baking for that 🙂 Thanks for hopping over to check it out Stacey!
I feel like we’re both in a quick version of quickbread kind of mode. This sounds delightful, and I love the icing option! A little sneaky extra treat 🙂
Yes I was thinking that too! I think we also just both love quick breads period 🙂 Thanks Laura!
This looks incredible. I am obsessed with the idea of that icing, especially. You are SO inventive. Pinning now!
The icing is my favorite part too!! Thanks Casey 🙂
Chai is everything i need in my life…and your amazing desserts of course. Natalie you are a genius!!! I need to do this asap, just a lil problem. I don’t have dates now.. it will work if i use coconut sugar or maple syrup?
Hi Liza! Chai is so good in every form, isn’t it!? If you want to make it without the dates, I recommend adding in either pumpkin or applesauce or even mashed banana otherwise it will be really dry. And then yes, use coconut sugar or maple syrup to sweeten. I would try 1/2 cup maple syrup, 3/4 cup pumpkin or applesauce (pumpkin is better!), and then increase the flour to 1 1/2 cup to make up for the addition of maple syrup. I hope that helps, let me know if you have any other questions 🙂
If I add a 1/4 cup maple sugar instead of maple syrup would I need to add the extra 1/4 cup of oats?
Hi Kelly! Maple sugar will be fine, you do not need to adjust any of the other ingredients. Happy baking 🙂
Hi! Wanting to make this delicious sounding bread but wondering…
The ingredients list mentions non-dairy milk, but the instructions do not. I would assume adding it when you add the dates/chai, but don’t want to put it in if it was in the ingredients inadvertently.
Thanks!
Oooops! My mistake, that’s what I get for retesting and tweaking the recipe at the last minute. Just add the non-diary milk into the blender with the dates and other wet ingredients, I will add that to the recipe right now. Thanks Adrienne and happy baking 🙂
Great! Thanks!
Ok, what is going on here, Natalie?! I’m catching up on some of your latest goodies, and I want to make EVERY. SINGLE. THING.!.!.!. What are you doing to me?! ? This bread, all those spices, and all that frosting — they all look insane!
I am totally digging the fall/winter flavors, ideas (and spices) are just flowing right now!?
Hi Natalie
I dont have the tapioca starch so if I use whole-wheat pasty flour in place of 1 1/4 cup oat flour and ¼ cup tapioca starch , must the qty be 1.5 cups of pastry flour or should I also be adding baking powder?
Hi Sam! If you use whole wheat pastry flour in place of the oat + tapioca, yes it will be about 1.5 cups total. Since it is a completely different protein/gluten content and will absorb liquid differently, if the batter seems excessively thin or thick adjust accordingly. And yes you do still need the baking powder. Hope that helps!
Oh this looks so lovely and timely for winter!
Indeed! All those warm spices are perfect right now 🙂
I cannot find the japanese sweet potato in any of my grocery stores, what can be a substitute?
Any type of sweet potato will be okay, it will just affect the color and texture slightly. With the regular orange you will probably need a little less non-dairy milk, but adjust accordingly.
Do you use real ginger or ginger powder?
I used powdered here, but either would be fine 🙂
Natalie, stop it, I’m drooling! I need to make this while I’m home over spring break!
Anything I can use instead of tapioca starch by chance? No worries if not.
Love that the frosting is made with SWEET POTATO- what the heck!! You are a creative genius. I miss making your recipes, but it’s tough at school without a blender or food processor (I know, how do I live!?). Can’t wait to make this bread though since I LOVE chai and bananas!
But really, how do you live!?!? Hahaha!! That would be tricky, but how wonderful it will be to be home over spring break with a full size kitchen and all the appliances! Cornstarch would be the next best thing in place of tapioca if you have it, that will be just fine. Let me know if you do get a chance to try it, always love hearing your thoughts Ellie. And enjoy your break (is it soon?)
Hi Natalie! I miss chatting with you! I’ve sort of fallen out of my blog and instagram now that I don’t have a kitchen 🙁
What did you do about that in college? Or did you always have a kitchen or blender?
I have been posting articles on Spoon University though, so I’m not totally out of the food loop!
I’m actually on spring break right now, so I’ll be making this today or tomorrow! It’s so nice to be able to make smoothies again, as well as lots of other treats. I feel like you right now, as I’m experimenting with putting spinach in cookies! All my friends think it’s disgusting though hahaha.