Banana Bread

Dense and moist gluten free dairy free banana bread has never been so easy to make! You only need 8 simple ingredients and just over an hour to make this fantastic allergen friendly quick bread banana bread. Full of flavor, this dairy and gluten free banana bread tastes just like regular banana bread, maybe even a bit better! Lather on a little pad of dairy free butter and watch it melt into your freshly baked bread.

Quick breads are perfect for when you want a fresh loaf of your favorite flavored bread but don't want to spend all day waiting for it to rise. No kneading of the dough is necessary either!

Making a homemade loaf of gluten free bread can feel daunting for some people, but kick that feeling to the curb because making this gluten free banana bread is super simple- plus it's a dairy free recipe too!

Why you'll love this allergen friendly banana bread recipe

• Homemade bread that's both dairy free and gluten free with the perfect sweet banana flavor
• Only requires minimal pantry staple ingredients, nothing crazy that you don't already have in your gluten free kitchen
• A great way to use up overripe bananas
• If you love quick breads, you'll love this easy gluten and dairy free banana bread

Ingredients needed

Get more info, like quantities, on these basic ingredients in the recipe card below.

• Bananas
• Canola Oil
• Large Eggs
• Brown Sugar
• Baking Powder
• Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 gluten-free flour blend
• Cinnamon
• Optional add in's: chopped nuts or chocolate chips

How to make gluten free dairy free banana bread

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Using a stand mixer combine all the wet ingredients: canola oil, eggs, and mashed bananas, using the whisk attachment. It can be helpful if you mash bananas ahead of time before combining them with the rest of the wet ingredients.
3. In a separate mixing bowl combine the dry ingredients: brown sugar, baking powder, gluten free flour, and cinnamon. Once they are mixed well together, turn the stand mixer speed to low and slowly add the dry ingredients from the large mixing bowl into the wet ingredients in the stand mixer. Do not add all the ingredients at once or it will become difficult to incorporate them all together and disperse everything throughout.
4. Prep your baking pans or loaf pans with some canola oil, see other ways to prep your baking pans below if desired. Then pour the batter into the prepared pan, leaving ¼ inch or more room from the top so the bread has room to rise as it bakes.
5. Bake for 50-60 minutes until set and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Keep an eye on your bread during the last 15 or so minutes of baking so you end up with a loaf of perfectly baked bread, not a burnt loaf.

Storage

For best results, store any leftover gluten free dairy free banana bread at room temperature, on a plate wrapped in plastic wrap. Alternatively, you can store your gluten and dairy free bread in an airtight container.

Properly stored bread should last 4-5 days. Just make sure NOT to store your homemade bread in the refrigerator.

If you store your gluten free banana bread in the fridge, it will dry it out and the bread will not last as long and will taste and feel stale much faster.

Additionally, you can freeze your gluten free dairy free bread for later. You can choose to freeze your banana bread as mini loaves, full size loaves, muffins, or slice your loaves into individual sized portions for later.

Always make sure your bread has cooled down to room temperature before wrapping it tightly with plastic wrap covering it in aluminum foil. Then, place your wrapped bread in a freezer safe, airtight container and freeze it for up to 3 months.

You can wrap your classic banana bread and freeze bread in slices or a full loaf.

Tips and Variations

The first time you make this recipe, I highly suggest sticking to the instructions and ingredients that this recipe was originally made and tested with. However, if the next time that you're making delicious bread from scratch and you're looking for things to add or change up, here are some fantastic variations and different things to try. You'll also find a few helpful tips to ensure you end up with the perfect loaf of banana bread after following our recipe. Keep in mind that this was tested as is written, the variations have not been tested, but are tricks and different combinations we have used in other recipes that would go well in this recipe.

• Adjust the amount of cinnamon you add, you can also use pumpkin spice, or add nutmeg in as well.
• Feel free to add in some vanilla extract to add another depth of flavor to your dairy free banana bread.
• To bring a little extra sweetness to your gluten-free banana bread recipe, add a drizzle of maple syrup to your banana bread batter mixture.
• If using a different gluten free baking flour, like almond flour, brown rice flour, oat flour, or coconut flour, you may need to add xanthan gum, depending on which brand and choice you make. Always check your flour choice to see if it has xanthan gum included in the ingredients or not. Bob's Red Mill 1-1 GF Flour Blend already contains it, that's why we didn't add any extra to this gluten-free bread recipe.
• If possible, always bake with room temperature ingredients, especially eggs, as the room temperature ingredients mix better than cold ingredients do.
• If you want to make this more of a dessert bread, you can add frosting. If you aren't worried about the frosting being dairy free, try this delicious cream cheese frosting on top of your homemade fresh bread. If you need it to be dairy free, you can simply swap out the regular cream cheese for a dairy free cream cheese variety.
• No stand mixer? No problem! Simply mix the wet ingredients separately from the dry ingredients and then slowly incorporate them together, whisking and mixing by hand. You will still end up with wonderful banana bread batter, just be sure not to overmix your batter ingredients or you'll end up with rubber like bread.
• The most important thing to remember when baking from scratch is to measure properly. This is especially important when measuring out your flour. Do NOT dip your measuring cup directly into the flour and fill your cup from there. This often results in incorrect measurements. Measuring by weight is the golden standard, but when you can't do that, use a spoon to transfer flour from your container to your measuring cup until it's full, do not pack down. Then use a knife to level off at the top of the flour so it's an even measuring cup full.

What can I add into this gluten free banana bread?

Looking to add things in to your dairy free banana bread and bring out a fun new texture to your bread? Try any of these ideas:

• dairy free chocolate chips
• chopped pecans
• chopped walnuts
• chopped almonds
• other baking chips
• coconut flakes
• pumpkin spice
• zest from lemon or zest from an orange
• dried fruit like cranberries or even freeze dried bananas

Can you make vegan banana bread?

Making this easy bread recipe gluten free and dairy free, makes it one step closer to being vegan- but we still use eggs, so we need a modification.

To make this a vegan banana bread recipe, swap out the eggs for an egg replacer, like a quarter cup of unsweetened apple sauce. You can also use flax egg instead of regular egg to make this an egg-free banana bread recipe.

If flaxseed and flax eggs aren't your thing, you can actually just replace the eggs with more mashed bananas. They're moist enough and will acta as a vegan friendly binding agent in this bread baking recipe.

Can you make oil free banana bread?

We use oil as the moisture along with the eggs in this homemade bread recipe. If you want an oil free, gluten-free recipe, you can omit the oil and use almond milk, coconut milk, soy milk, or oat milk in its place to keep this a dairy free bread recipe.

For this easy recipe, we also used canola oil to prep our baking pans with. If trying to make an oil free bread, you can use dairy-free butter to grease your muffin pans or mini loaf pans.

Alternatively, you can also cut a piece of parchment paper and lay it into the loaf pan to help make removing the bread from the pan easier. Make sure to leave enough above both sides of the pan that you can grab both sides of excess parchment paper to use as handles to remove your freshly baked bread from the loaf pans.

Can you make a refined sugar free banana bread?

Sure can! As you can see, this delicious banana bread recipe is very versatile! Not only can it be made oil free and vegan with some alterations, you can easily make this a refined sugar free bread recipe by swapping the brown sugar out for coconut sugar. If that doesn't give you enough sweet flavoring in your bread, you can add a dash of maple syrup that will bring natural sweetness to your tasty, moist homemade bread.

What size pan do I use?

This really is the best banana bread recipe! I love that it's so versatile. Not only is it easy to change up the ingredients, but you can make the recipe in various size baking pans.

I like making my bread in mini loaf pans, that way I limit what I eat in a sitting, and I can easily freeze the remaining loaves and use them when I might not have the hour it takes to make these babies.

Additionally, you can also use muffin tins for a single serving setup. Instead of individual slices of banana bread, you can make banana muffins and they'll be individual servings.

You can also make a large single loaf of homemade banana bread using this recipe but note that there will be a difference in the cooking time of the larger loaf of bread.

Can you use frozen bananas?

I always seem to buy more bananas than I'm going to eat and I end up with a few brown ones. These ugly bananas find a home in my freezer until it's time to make bread.

They are perfect for it because as the banana ages it gets sweeter. Sweet bananas = Awesome banana bread. 

If you are using bananas from the freezer just make sure to let them thaw before you start the recipe or you'll have odd chunks of banana and clumps of melted butter on your dairy free and gluten free quick banana bread.

Why is my gluten free banana bread rubbery?

Ending up with rubbery banana bread is more common when you're making bread with a wheat flour. Usually, if you overmix the bread batter trying to achieve the perfect texture, you will end up with a dense and rubbery bread.

You want tender bread, so don't overmix, just mix the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients just enough so that it is all incorporated together.

When using a wheat flour and overmixing, this is what causes the gluten to develop and will make a dense rubbery bread. But this can still happen when using gluten free flour and making homemade bread.

Why did my gluten free banana bread fall?

Usually, this will happen when the bread is baked at too high of a temperature too fast. The outside of the bread will bake faster and can start to burn before the inside of the bread has a chance to finish baking and support the outer crust.

Oftentimes, this happens if your oven isn't running properly and the temperature sensor isn't calibrated properly or the thermometer just isn't working properly. Always check your oven to ensure that it truly is the oven temperature you intend it to be.

More Gluten Free Bread and Baking Recipes

Looking for more delicious bread and treats to whip up in the kitchen, here are a few of our favorites:

• Gluten Free Classic Cornbread
• Simple Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Gluten Free Pumpkin Cookies
• Gluten Free Yeast Donuts
• Gluten Free Brownies
• Gluten Free Chocolate Coffee Cake Muffins
• Oat Flour Waffles with Fresh Strawberry Syrup
• Gluten Free Vanilla Cupcake Recipe

This really is the best gluten free and dairy free moist banana bread! It has a fantastic crumby texture that's nice and dense and very moist. It screams banana bread with every bite. Grab the ingredients for the best gluten-free banana bread and get to baking!

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