The perfect healthy gluten free banana bread for any occasion! Try a classic gluten free banana nut bread, or one of the more adventurous mix ins, like blueberries or raspberries.Â
*Today I’m partnering with Sharp Home USA ~ Sharp creates quality home appliances that make life easier! I’ve been using the Superheated Steam Countertop Oven for the past few months, and can’t wait to share how it makes cooking healthy meals easier. Thanks for supporting me and the brands I work with. I only share this space with the very best.
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How do you make Gluten Free Banana Bread?
My favorite flours for gluten free baking are oat and almond flours. Both provide more nutrition than regular wheat flours, and when combined, make a great swap that doesn’t require adding gums or other binding agents.
The Healthy Ingredients Needed:
- Ripe Bananas
- Oat flour (certified gluten free, if necessary)
- Almond flour (lends a great sweetness!)
- Flax meal
- Moscavado sugar (this is an unrefined sugar, meaning the molasses and vitamins are still in tact. If this is hard to find, use brown sugar in it’s place.)
- Yogurt
- Eggs
- Coconut Oil
- Baking soda and salt
This recipe uses wholesome ingredients – no xantham gum. I also do not use premixed gluten free flour blends. These flours often have starches and gums that aren’t great for our bodies.
This bread is super low in sugar (only 2 tablespoons a loaf!), because the bananas are caramelized, amplifying the natural sweetness in them. Don’t skip this step!
After gathering the ingredients for the gluten free banana bread base, it’s time to choose flavor mix-ins!
If you love all these variations to gluten free Banana Bread, experiment with your own! I love this idea — Lemon Poppyseed Banana Bread.
Steps to Making Healthy Banana Bread:
- Caramelize the bananas by spraying them lightly with coconut oil spray, and broiling them until they brown. This helps make this banana bread extra-“banana-y” and sweet without a lot of added sugar.
- In a mixing bowl, add oat flour, almond flour, flax meal, sugar, baking soda and salt. Mix these together before adding the wet ingredients.
- In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, yogurt, and melted coconut oil.
- Add the wet ingredients to the bowl of dry ingredients, and fold in. Before the ingredients are completely incorporated, add in the bananas, and keep stirring to mash the bananas and combine the dry ingredients.
- Add any mix-ins — feeling like blueberries, raspberries, or chocolate chips?
- Pour batter into a lined loaf pan. A little baking paper helps this loaf come out of the pan perfectly.
- If you’d like a crumble topping, mix together the ingredients for your chosen topping (nuts, oats, a little sugar and coconut oil – easy!). Add this to the top of your batter, gently pressing into the batter.
- Bake this loaf for 45-50 minutes. Allow to cool before slicing!
Pro Tip: If serving this banana bread to guests, I like to completely cool it in the refrigerator prior to slicing. This will give you the smooth, perfect slices you’d get in a coffee shop!
Healthy Gluten Free Banana Bread – 3 Ways!
The basic gluten free banana bread recipe here is perfect with a wide range of additions!
Keep your loaf simple, with only caramelized bananas. It’s perfect in its simplicity and makes such a wonderful snack or breakfast.
If you’re feeling wild like I was this week, add some flavor and crunch additions!
You’ll find instructions below to make this bread a classic banana nut bread, or a gourmet blueberry pecan or raspberry chocolate chip loaf.
Feel free to make this your own. Only want chocolate chips? Do it! Feel like banana hazelnut? Sounds delicious to me.
The best part about this recipe?
It’s perfect for the Sharp Home USA Superheated Steam Countertop Oven. I love the ease of use for this oven — no preheating is required, so making banana bread is so much faster!
The oven bakes with convection and superheated steam, so it cooks about 30% faster. Banana bread takes about 45 minutes to bake in a regular oven, but only 32 in the Sharp Home USA Superheated Steam Countertop Oven. Afternoon baking project simplified!
Gluten Free Banana Nut Bread
The most classic version of this gluten free banana bread recipe is banana nut! As much as I love the variations, there are times when only the original will do.
After trying a banana bread recipe with caramelized bananas, I will never go back to a traditional recipe. The step takes only a few minutes, and the result is a sweet, moist, deep banana flavored bread.
Adding a streusel topping is optional, but lends to a beautiful presentation and a fun crunchy texture.
A Blueberry Pecan Banana Bread
If you’re all about blueberries, then this is the option for you! I adore blueberries, especially mid summer when they are giant and super sweet.
Use frozen blueberries if fresh aren’t available.
The sweet and crunchy addition of pecans make this gluten free banana bread recipe irresistible! Of course, if you prefer, you can swap in a different nut, like chopped hazelnuts, almonds or walnuts. Even chocolate chips would be a delicious swap here!
The streusel topping I like to use on this variation is a combination of oats and pecans. The topping is optional!
Raspberry Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips
Perhaps my favorite banana bread variation is adding raspberries and chocolate chips. Last year, I made a gluten free and sugar free banana bread with these additions. This version uses the same base as the other two recipes in this post, using a small amount of sugar and caramelized bananas for additional sweetness.
I typically add frozen raspberries to baking recipes, but fresh work as well.
Using high quality dark chocolate chips is a must! High cocoa content means lower sugar content, keeping this a healthy banana bread choice.
The streusel topping I use for the banana raspberry chocolate chip bread is a combination of oats and chopped chocolate chips. Use nuts if you prefer!
Other Gluten Free Dessert Recipes:
- Tres Leches Cake, by Sunkissed Kitchen
- The BEST Fudgy Brownies, by Sunkissed Kitchen
- Gluten Free Apple Bread, by Sunkissed Kitchen
- Gluten Free Donuts, by Sunkissed Kitchen
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Gluten Free Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 4 medium bananas ripe
- coconut oil to spray
- 3/4 cup oat flour gluten free, if necessary
- 1/2 cup almond flour
- 1/4 cup flax meal
- 2 tablespoons moscavado or sub brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 cup yogurt
- 2 eggs
- 1/3 cup coconut oil
- 1/2 cup walnuts optional
Streusel Topping
- 1 1/2 tablespoons oats gluten free, if necessary
- 1 tablespoon walnuts or pecans chopped finely
- 1 tablespoon moscavado
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
Blueberry Pecan*
- 1 cup blueberries fresh or frozen
- 1/2 cup pecans chopped finely
Raspberry Chocolate Chip*
- 1 cup raspberries fresh or frozen
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- Slice 4 ripe bananas lengthwise. Add them to a baking tray, and spray them lightly with coconut oil.
- Broil bananas in the Sharp Superheated Steam Countertop Oven for 10 minutes, until the tops of the bananas have begun to brown.
- Line a 9x5 loaf pan with parchment or baking paper, and set aside.
- Mix together optional streusel topping ingredients. See notes below for variations on streusel topping for the Blueberry Pecan and Raspberry Chocolate Chip variations.
- If using a conventional oven, preheat oven to broil, and broil bananas for 15 minutes, or until tops have begun to brown.
- In a mixing bowl, add oat flour, almond flour, flax meal, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Mix to combine.
- In a smaller bowl, add yogurt, eggs, and coconut oil (melted). Mix well to combine, and then pour into the bowl with dry ingredients. Stir until just combined.
- Add caramelized bananas to batter, along with walnuts, or optional additions (blueberries, raspberries or chocolate chips). If adding chocolate chips, allow the bananas to cool before mixing in to the batter, otherwise the chocolate will melt. Fold additional ingredients into batter.
- Pour the batter into prepared loaf pan, and top with the optional streusel topping.
- Bake in the Sharp Superheated Steam Countertop Oven at 350º F for 32 minutes.
- If baking in a conventional oven, preheat oven to 350º F and bake for 45-52 minutes, or until the center is set and the top is golden brown.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
I love banana bread. One of my favourite snacks, especially in the winter as it is so comforting.
Yes, and in the winter when there aren’t so many amazing fruits available. I live in the tropics, so the availability of fruit doesn’t change… so banana bread gets to be a year-round think!
Loving this recipe and only 1/3 cup butter – I am in!!
Thank you for telling me this Alexis! When I made the bread, I knew I had to photograph it for the blog because it was too beautiful not to take photos of! Glad to hear the butter works well in the topping. I actually just get lazy about melting the better, and where I live, coconut oil is always liquid, so it’s easy to use.
I’ve never caramelized the bananas for banana bread before!! That is absolutely genius. Definitely using this recipe from now on.
Delicious idea to caramelize the bananas!!!! Banana brea is my absolute favorite and this might just be my favorite variation!
This gluten-free recipe is awesome! I made this for my niece who must maintain a gluten-free diet. She said it was the BEST banana bread she’s ever tasted. Thank you so much for sharing this!
This is absolutely delicious! I love that it’s such a crowd pleaser for the whole family
I love banana bread all the time but this caramelized gluten free version really takes it up a notch! So delicious!
What a wonderful recipe! We have friends who are gluten-free. Bookmarking for later to surprise our guests next time.
I’m not sure why I’ve never thought to carmelize the bananas when making banana bread. This is such a great idea and an added delicious flavor.