When I want to treat myself, I like to go out to get a warm slice of banana bread. There’s a little cafe on my favorite street here in Denver that I sometimes venture out to.
With my dirty chai latte in the other hand, I gobble up the warm baked treat, which I love slathered with a good amount of salted butter.
It’s one of those simple joys in life, a pleasure-filled moment that I’m sure we can all relate to.
Everyone deserves a dreamy go-to recipe to recreate this particular brand of magic at home, especially if you’re gluten-free.
While I’ve found that many gluten-free recipes out there leave something to be desired, producing a loaf that is far from ideal in terms of texture, there’s no need to worry with this recipe because it is absolutely foolproof – not dry, mushy, or gummy like gluten-free baked goods can often be.
This is the one to rely on when you want a soft, extra moist, easy-to-slice, wonderfully delicious gluten-free banana bread.
The ingredients for this tasty recipe start with overripe bananas. Pretty standard, right?
Then come the essential non-banana ingredients, including almond flour, quinoa flour, butter, eggs, and other pantry items. The bread is sweetened with coconut sugar, and chopped dark chocolate brings in delicious additional flavor.
Once you get the ingredients mixed together, it takes about one hour to bake. The key is to make sure that you let the loaf cool in the pan for a bit before you take it out to cool completely. Otherwise, the loaf may fall apart before you even get a chance to slice it.
Patience is key here, my friends. You need to wait until it is cooled before you cut into it, or it could crumble before your eyes. It’s like digging into a batch of fudgy brownies before they are ready to be cut. No one wants to eat a mess of baked deliciousness.
If you wait, you’ll get a perfectly moist and incredibly satisfying slice of homemade banana bread that you are absolutely going to love.
One of my favorite things to do, when I really want to treat my husband, is to throw in this batter in a loaf pan in the afternoon before he gets home from work. The smell of the quick bread cooking in the oven fills our entire home. When he walks in the door, if I time it just right, he’s enveloped in the delightful aroma.
I wish I could say I would surprise him in the morning, but I am so not a morning person. The idea of getting up extra early to bake and present a warm slice or too of this tasty bread for breakfast isn’t really something I can handle. Good thing this bread keeps for four days, as long as you keep it in an airtight container…
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Gluten-Free Banana Bread
- Total Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes
- Yield: 1 loaf (8 slices) 1x
Description
This is the only gluten-free banana bread recipe you’ll ever need. Extra moist and incredibly easy to make, it is sure to become your new go-to.
Ingredients
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1 cup quinoa flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup coconut sugar
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter (1/2 stick), softened
- 2 large eggs
- 2–3 overripe bananas, mashed well (1 cup)
- 1/4 cup plain yogurt
- 3 tablespoons milk (any type)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 ounces dark chocolate, chopped (about 1/2 cup)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350˚F and grease a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan.
- In a small bowl, whisk together almond and quinoa flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream together coconut sugar and butter with an electric hand mixer or stand mixer on medium-high speed with whisk attachment for 3 to 4 minutes, until creamy.
- Add eggs, one at a time, beating on medium speed until each one is just combined. Add mashed bananas, yogurt, milk, and vanilla, and beat until combined on medium speed.
- Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and beat at low speed until just combined. Fold in the chopped chocolate.
- Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and bake for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Remove from oven. Let cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before turning out to cool completely on a wire rack. Slice and serve.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Category: Quick Bread
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Baked Goods
Keywords: gluten-free, banana, bread
Cooking By the Numbers…
Step 1 – Mash Banana, Chop Chocolate, and Measure Ingredients
Mash the bananas well in a bowl. You could use a potato masher, but overripe bananas are also easy to mash with a fork.
Chop two ounces of dark chocolate. You should have about 1/2 cup total.
Measure out all of the remaining ingredients as listed on the ingredients list.
Preheat your oven to 350˚F. Lightly grease a 9-by-5-inch pan with cooking oil spray or unsalted butter.
Step 2 – Make Dough
Add the gluten-free almond and quinoa flour, baking soda, and salt to a small bowl. Whisk together until combined. Set aside.
In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat together the coconut sugar and butter until the mixture is creamy. This should take about 3 to 4 minutes on medium-high speed. You can also use a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.
Beat in the eggs one at a time, on medium speed, until each is just combined. Add the mashed bananas, yogurt, milk, and vanilla extract. Beat until just combined on medium speed.
Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture, and beat on low speed until just combined. Gently stir in the chopped chocolate.
Step 3 – Bake
Pour batter into the greased pan.
Bake for 1 hour, until golden brown. A toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean.
Step 4 – Cool
Let the bread cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Carefully turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Once cooled, slice and serve.
Store in an airtight container for up to four days.
Do I Have to Add Chocolate?
Not a fan of chocolate? No problem. Simply omit the chocolate and the bread will taste just as good!
You can also substitute 1/2 cup of chopped nuts for the chocolate if you prefer. I love to use walnuts or pecans.
For more gluten-free recipes, try these delicious baked goods next:
Do you prefer chocolate in your banana bread, or nuts? Tell us in the comments below! And be sure to give this recipe a five-star rating if you tried it and loved it.
Photos by Meghan Yager, © Ask the Experts, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. See our TOS for more details. Originally published by Shanna Mallon on March 15, 2013. Last updated on March 27, 2021.
Nutritional information derived from a database of known generic and branded foods and ingredients and was not compiled by a registered dietitian or submitted for lab testing. It should be viewed as an approximation.
About Meghan Yager
Meghan Yager is a food addict turned food and travel writer with a love for creating uncomplicated, gourmet recipes and devouring anything the world serves up. As the author of the food and travel blog Cake 'n Knife, Meghan focuses on unique foodie experiences from around the world to right at home in your own kitchen.
Loved this post, Shanna. It’s funny, because I find that the things I enjoy making and eating the most are the things I am constantly trying new recipes or new methods for. You would think that with something you love making you’d have one tried and true recipe, but for me that’s not the case. I love making biscuits and scones, but I don’t think I have ever made the same recipe twice! And I guess it’s what you said – it’s about seeing something in a new way.
There’s not a lot that’s more comforting than banana bread. The smell of it baking always takes me back to being a kid! Yours looks great – love the versatility!
You’re so sweet, Marie. Thank you!
As I’m striving to organize the piles of magazine clippings of recipes to try (slowly moving over to Pinterest but mainly filed away by category in my Gooseberry Patch recipe organizer), I’ve found that I tend to pull from magazines so many of the same types of recipes. Nothing wrong with re-visting your favorites! Thanks for sharing the things to check out too!! Some of them are very appropriate for where I am at right now in life. 🙂
: ) It’s true that certain foods always appeal to us. For me, it’s banana bread; for someone else, it’s an apple cake. I like that.
I’m very interested in the idea of quinoa flour – so many gluten free recipes call for oat flour and yet a lot of the people I know who have to eat gluten free can’t tolerate oats (even ones marketed as being gluten free) so it sounds like it could be a great alternative.
Happy weekend!
Me too, Kathryn. I have yet to buy it, and I’m definitely curious.
Shanna…
I loved the links you shared, and like we’ve talked about before, it’s wonderful getting to know you (and other bloggers) better when you give us a glimpse of what blogs/books you read.
Just found two blogs that I know I will definitely be following!
happy friday.
Thanks, Felicia! I definitely agree!
Shanna, thanks for sharing some of the links and quotes that have been helping you make sense of these recently. I particularly enjoyed #3!
In the last 5 years or so, I don’t think I have made the same banana bread twice–every time I make it (which is at least once every few months), I try a different recipe. There are so many ways to make delicious banana bread, I just have to keep experimenting!
P.S. I tried to send you an email a few days ago through your “contact” form, but I’m not sure it went through… can you let me know if you received something? Thanks!!
And thing with banana bread is that it almost always tastes good, no matter how you tweak it. : )
P.S. I never did get your email, so please feel free to resend! I responded to you via email too, in case writing me directly is easier.
i love banana bread. i’ve been making molly’s one (orangette) with yogurt and ginger and choc chips. sigh. YUM!
I have always, always loved Molly’s love of banana breads. : )
i am always on the lookout for the next banana bread recipe, so i made this tonite… In lieu of the einkorn flour, I used coconut flour, I used coconut milk, coconut oil & instead of yogurt I used silkened tofu. It wasn’t a batter, it was more like a really soft cookie dough. I still baked it & it tastes fine, it was kinda weird. Now I’m wondering if it was the coconut flour or the tofu or whatever that made it all wonky…
This comment made me smile, Lan… : ) 1) You are so daring and willing to take risks in your substitutions, and I love it and 2) I love that you came over here to tell me how it went. Here’s to many more experiments and learning along the way! : )
i love when you link to quotes. Always SO good. You are so wonderful. and ps. never too many banana bread trials.
Hi, is there a flour you recommend in place of the almond flour? My daughter is allergic to tree nuts unfortunetly.
Hi Melody, There are tons of other gluten-free flours to experiment with, but few that will be a direct one-to-one substitute for almond. Here’s a coconut flour banana bread I’ve had bookmarked for ages (which would be nut-free if you omitted to walnuts): http://summerharms.blogspot.com/2012/10/best-coconut-flour-banana-nut-bread.html
Superb blog! Do you have any tips and hints for aspiring writers? I’m hoping to start my own blog soon but I’m a little lost on everything. Would you advise starting with a free platform like Wordpress or go for a paid option? There are so many options out there that I’m completely overwhelmed .. Any tips? Thank you! Ajax Roofing Contractors, 15-75 Bayly St. W., #323, Ajax, Ontario, L1S 7L7, Canada, 289-275-1500
Hi Phoebe, We’ve actually set up a page that answers some of these very questions! Hope this is helpful for you: http://foodloveswriting.com/starting-a-food-blog/
Hi Shanna,
I have both quinoa flour and einkorn flour, which one tastes better? I haven’t tried baking with quinoa flour yet and wondered if it’s worth a try with the ingredients? Maybe I’ll break out the quinoa flour and give it a shot and report back later! Thanks for the great recipes- I’m on summer break and looking through your blog for inspiration. Everything looks great!
Andrea, We loved when our friend did the bread with quinoa and almond flours, so I’d try that. As a bonus, the result is gluten-free!
I am starting to look forward to fall so I can turn my oven on again and bake. This looks like a good recipe to try. Thanks.
I was just saying to Tim that Nashville’s current rainy weather is making me feel like fall — and fall baking! Hard to believe it’s so soon!
I have an abundance of ready-to-use bananas stashed on my counter, and thinking this banana breads looks like the perfect thing to use them up! 😀
It’s always a good time for banana bread!
Ive never put yogurt in my banana bread. will have to try this.