If you’re a beginner in gluten free and food allergy friendly baking, this gluten free banana bread recipe is for you! Not only is this one bowl Gluten Free Banana Bread recipe easy, it also happens to be egg free. This vegan banana bread is even dairy free, but still super moist and won’t fall apart.
Get back to basics with gluten free banana bread. Remember the first foods for baby? Banana was right up there for easy natural meals. Well guess what? Bananas happen to be the perfect natural gluten free binder. I know. Nothing new, but new to me. And even newer to me was the fact that real bananas are used to make banana bread. #seriously #ihadnoclue
Yep.
I didn’t know banana bread actually contained real bananas until college. Pretty silly, huh? My kids would call this a Captain Obvious moment. But. The only banana bread I was ever exposed to came from a boxed mix. No bananas. Just a box with a plastic bag full of flour which smelled like bananas. Sure, it tasted like bananas but I doubt any real bananas were there. Artificial flavors and colors ruled in the 80’s…
There is nothing artificial in this easy gluten free banana bread. Three HUGE real bananas make up the bulk of moisture in here. Plus bananas have tons of fiber, minerals and naturally sweeten.
Allergy free baking is usually a challenge. Like Forrest Gump, you never know what you’re gonna get trying a new gluten free egg free recipe. Or sadly you do know what you’re going to get— a gooey gummy center.
Not with this egg free banana bread.
Nope.
Here you will find the amount of pectin from the bananas correctly holds the moisture and oil while providing structure without the need for eggs or dairy. Pectin is a gel binder. Gel binders (think chia seeds and psyllium husks) work to provide structure during baking. Similar to eggs. But pectin and other gel binders only do so much before breaking down with heat. Not similar to eggs.
So what else should you use for structure? Gums. Gums won’t breakdown with heat and essentially takeover the structure of the bread as the gel binder starts to breakdown.
Another little trick is when you add the sugar. Apparently sugar can provide a little extra structure if not dissolved into the batter. Makes sense. Chemically, sugar has a crystal structure. Imagine rock candy but on the super tiny granular level. The sugar eventually melts into the bread at a certain time and temperature–all hopefully after the bread has expanded. At that point the pectin and gums take over for structure.
One last technique I used was using a foil tent. I choose a foil tent for 2 reasons:
- It prevented over browning (aka burning)
- It prevented a crust prematurely forming.
The tent did wonders on allowing the gluten free banana bread to rise to it’s fullest potential before crusting up. Your quick bread will achieve the classic split down the middle with a domed top. Looks like a winner.
And the taste? SO good. My older son loves it so much we made twice a week. Plus, he chose to give this up during Lent! As I type, there’s another batch in the oven. Sunday’s are indulgence days during Lent.
(A little behind the scenes: I photographed this bread last week but typed this 6:15am on Sunday morning. I woke up around 5:40am to start baking the gluten free banana bread for the kids when they wake up. #bestmom #imsotiredalready)
Enjoy this easy gluten free banana bread plain or add chocolate chips!
- 1½ cups ripe bananas (3 very large bananas)
- 2- 2¼* cups my gluten free white basic flour (SEE notes!)
- ½ cup dairy free milk
- ⅔ cup brown sugar
- ⅓ cup oil (I used avocado oil)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¾ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp guar gum
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees for 20 minutes prior to baking.
- In a large bowl, smash bananas with a fork until small lumps remain and turn into a liquid consistency. (Or food process until smooth).
- Combine all remaining ingredients, except sugar, and hand mix until incorporated well.
- Add the brown sugar just before baking, only stirring enough to evenly distribute. Do not over mix. (See notes)
- Bake in a 9x5 bread pan with a foil tent for 35-40 minutes. Remove foil tent and bake for another 20-22 minutes. Check center with toothpick, it should come out clean. Alternately bake an additional 3-5 minutes for an extra crisp top.
- Remove bread from oven. Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes then carefully transfer to a wire cooling rack.
- Allow to fully cool before slicing! It may take 2 hours. Patience will be rewarded with precise slicing with virtually no crumbs.
- Eat.Share.Repeat
Pureeing the bananas will produce more liquid than smashing. You could use up to another ¼ cup of flour but not necessarily. Look at your batter when you mix. Does your spoon trail freely disappear? Add more flour. Is the batter thicker and holds the spoon trail? You're good. No more flour needed.
The brown sugar can be substituted with white sugar. I wanted a little more nutrition with extra iron from the molasses found in brown sugar.
Enjoy!!
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Some other things you may like:
Egg Free Gluten Free Zucchini Bread (Vegan + Dairy Free)
Gluten Free Oatmeal Breakfast Bars (Vegan)
Vegan Gluten Free Orange Cranberry Bread– egg free dairy free
Gluten Free Panera Cinnamon Crunch Bagel Recipe (Vegan Copycat)
The Original Gluten Free Vegan Chocolate Zucchini Bread with Teff Flour
Hello, I’m Laura! Thanks for stopping by… I hope this blog will help you or someone you know and love. 
Oh, my! That looks delicious!
Banana bread is one of my favorites, especially homemade! Looks like a delicious recipe!
I didn’t see anything about the gluten free flour mix in the notes.
Hi Bev, Please read the notes again. It talks about how bananas are all different sizes and how you may or may not need to add extra gluten free flour for the correct moisture.
Wow! What a perfect way to start the day.
This looks amazing! I love banana bread so much!
This bread looks fluffy and delicious! I’d love a slice right now!
This looks delicious! ? I’d love to make it tonight… just looked in the fruit bowl and we only have 2 big bananas, not three ? And no guar gum. *sigh* could I still make it… or no?
Darn to only 2 bananas! I would buy another banana (doesn’t need to be extra ripe) tomorrow. It’s the moisture and Pectin from the banana you need, not the extra sweetness. You can use xanthan gum in place of guar gum. Good things come to those who wait, right??
It looks so fluffy! And I love that you gave a cup amount for the bananas. Just listing “2 bananas” or whatever drives me CRAZY. 😉
When I was a server many moons ago, I came across so many kids with egg allergies. I love that this banana bread is egg free cause everyone should be able to eat it (one of my favorite things to eat 🙂 )
I made this recipe (as muffins) and can report that they are delicious, moist, and a hit for my almost 3-year-old. The only thing I added was 1 tablespoon of cinnamon. Took your advice and used a food processor for the bananas, and added the (coconut) milk to the food processor too to ensure a thorough mix. I used melted butter for the oil and also greased the muffin tin with butter. Cooked for about 22 minutes uncovered at 350 degrees and they turned out perfect. This is the second recipe I have made from your website and the second success. Thank you so much for posting recipes that work and taste as good as they look.
Ariel- ?? So happy to hear things worked as a muffin! Thank you for sharing your results and instructions❤
Gorgeous photos, Laura! Love how the cracks form beautiful artisal loaves. Will be sharing your lovely recipe on my blog.
Thank you so much for sharing!!
I’ve tried this recipe twice now. Once with frozen bananas and the second time with fresh ripe bananas. Each time the flavor was good but BOTH came out with a gooey texture (frozen one worst than fresh) NOT AT ALL like the picture shows. The batter had good consistency each time. I cooked the first as the directions indicated and the second a full 1 1/2 hours. Neither time did the pick come out clean. What’s going on? How do I rectify this issue?
Hi Jamie, sorry to hear this…
First things that come to mind are: What gluten free flour are you using AND how *much* did you use? Did you purée or mash the bananas?
In the notes I mentioned if you purée the bananas you’ll need more flour since it liquifies the bananas. If you are just smashing them less water comes out. But if you do not smash the bananas enough, it can cause pockets of gooey-ness but it sounds like most of it was gooey.
Very gooey sounds like you need more flour but the please note, my flour contains less starch than a pre-mixed store bought mix. Too much starch causes the gummy problem in almost every egg free vegan recipe I’ve created *unless* I use my gluten free flour mix. (And if the mix contains gum already, it’s almost guaranteed to be gooey)
The batter should be thicker than cake batter. When you drag the mixing spoon through the batter it should leave a line, not disappear.
I hope that helps. I make this recipe once a week, usually just smashing the bananas. The amount of flour used varies a little each batch due amount of liquid from the bananas. You’ll get a feel for how much flour is needed after awhile.
I cannot have any refined sugars – how do you think this would work if I used agave nectar? Maybe only 1/3 cup agave nectar and reduce the liquids a few tablespoons???? I would really like to try this…
I have not tried with any syrups. I would definitely decrease the liquid amount to equal the amount of syrup you add and grease the pan. I find maple syrup makes baked goods stick to pans and paper liners. Would like to hear your results when you try!