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A recipe for Gluten-Free and Vegan Banana Bread that tastes equally as delicious as your traditional banana bread. No one will know it is gluten and dairy-free!
I often get asked why my recipes use certain flours/starches and why some are vegan while others are not. My recipes are almost always gluten-free because I eat gluten-free (most of the time), but as I’m sure you’ve discovered I am certainly not vegan or paleo or follow any real diet for that matter. Honestly, there is no rhyme or reason to it, my recipes come out the way they do entirely based on what I have on hand.
Sure I make the occasional grocery shop, but especially when it comes to baking there’s always different combinations that can yield the same result. I’m not about to go running out to the store to buy cornstarch and buckwheat if I already have tapioca flour and brown rice flour on hand. Same goes for eggs. If I’m out but have some flaxseed in the fridge, flax egg here we come. When there’s a will there’s a way!
Of course I’m also a sucker for a good science experiment. A while ago I read that mixing applesauce and baking powder can act as a binder instead of eggs. Obviously I forgot to write down where I read it or how to do it, but I gave it a shot and the baking gods must have been on my side because it actually worked out in this recipe.
I really had no intention of posting this recipe when I was baking it because I made it last-minute for C when I visited Montreal a few weeks ago. I sneakily made it gluten-free so I could eat it too. He was shocked at how good it was despite its “healthiness” (healthy food can taste good people!!!) that I knew I had to recreate and photograph it. I then made them into muffins when I catered and fooled everyone there too. I declare myself the banana bread queen because damnnnnn this.is.good.
The Best Ever Banana Bread {Gluten-Free & Vegan}
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 60 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 12-16 slices 1x
- Category: Snack
- Method: Bake
- Diet: Vegan
Ingredients
Dry:
- 3/4 cup brown rice flour*
- 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp gluten-free oat flour (ground rolled oats)*
- 3/4 cup potato starch*
- 1/4 cup tapioca starch*
- 1 tsp xanthan gum**
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
Wet:
- 1/2 cup applesauce, warmed up and then mixed with ½ tsp baking powder
- 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 4 ripe bananas
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Optional: 1 cup chocolate chips or nuts (or a combination)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Spray a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan with coconut oil or non-stick spray (bread is big so don’t use a smaller sized pan)
- Combine all dry ingredients and set aside.
- In a separate bowl mash up bananas. Add in warm applesauce (premixed with baking powder), melted coconut oil, maple syrup, almond milk and vanilla and stir to combine.
- Add wet ingredients to dry and stir until just combined.
- Add in chocolate chips or nuts if desired.
- Scoop batter into pan and bake for 55-60 mins.
- Remove from oven and let cool for at least 30 mins before removing from pan and placing on a wire rack to cool completely.
- Will keep in a sealed container on counter for up to 5 days.
*Or replace brown rice flour, oat flour, tapioca flour and potato starch with 2 1/4 cups + 2 tbsp of regular all-purpose or whole wheat flour.
**If using regular all-purpose or whole wheat omit xanthan gum
***Can also be made into 12 large muffins (bake for 25-30 mins or until top is brown and springs back)
Like this recipe? Check out some of my other baked goods!
Hi just wondering if using all purpose gluten free flour would be okay? If so will all the measurements be the same? Thanks I’m
New to baking lol. 🙂
Hey Juliana! You should be able to substitute all-purpose gluten-free flour for the flours but it may change the recipe slightly. You’ll notice that I use xanthan gum in the recipe, which is necessary for binding so make sure the gluten-free all-purpose flour you use contains xanthan gum (some of them don’t) otherwise the bread may crumble. Let me know how it goes!
Can you use gluten free all purpose flour instead? Would all the measurements still be the same. I’m new to baking so just wanna make sure. Thanks! 🙂
Love it 🙂
Omgosh I made this tonight with a few adaptations and absolutely love it!!! Thank you so much for sharing the recipe, it’ll be a staple in my book for sure! 🙂
So happy to hear it! Honoured to be a staple 🙂
That is a great tip especially to those new to the blogosphere.
Simple but very precise information… Many thanks for sharing this one.
A must read article!
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HELP NEEDED!!!
Thank you so much for posting this recipe. I have such blind faith in you that I QUADRUPLED the recipe. I am about to start making them, however, I am concerned with the “4 bananas” because they vary in size so much. I usually mash my ripened bananas down and freeze them. It would be incredibly awesome if you could give some sort of measurement either cups or grams of mashed bananas. Because they have so much of an impact on the density, moistness, and ultimate success of the recipe, I’m scared to continue. I only have the dry ingredients mixed right now. If you miraculously get this and respond soon, it would be so appreciated. I would hate to ruin 4 batches 🙁 Thanks SOOOOOOOOO much!
Hi Terri,
I wish I could give you a definitive answer but I don’t know for sure. My bananas are usually around medium-large and I would say would be about a 1/2 a cup mashed each so 4 bananas would be around 2 cups of mashed banana. Truth-be-told I have made this bread many times and my bananas always vary but have yet to ever have a loaf not turn out. I’ve never tried to quadruple it though. Let me know how it turns out! Best of luck. -Davida
Thank you very much. My girlfriend and I have enjoyed this recipe very much. However the only issue we have had is that the bread does not hold it’s shape when it cools. It looks fluffy and incredible when it comes out of the oven, but then quickly drops and flattens as it cools down. Is there a way that we can stop this from happening or is there something we can add to help it hold it’s shape?
Thanks again!
Hi Calum! Glad you enjoyed the recipe. As for the sinking, do you happen to live in a high altitude location? Oftentimes the difference in altitudes can affect recipes. You could also try baking it longer. It may not be as moist in this case but it will hold up a bit better if that’s your preference. Thanks so much for stopping by 🙂
What are your thoughts on using frozen bananas? I have about 4 on hand (no time to make banana bread when they were getting ripe, so off to the freezer they went!). Obviously, I would let them defrost.
Hi Lisy! Frozen and thawned bananas would work perfectly well! In fact I almost always use frozen bananas since they were usually frozen because they were super ripe. Hope you enjoy!
Thanks for the speedy reply. I’ll be baking this for Shabbat dinner tomorrow night 🙂
No problem! Hope you enjoy 🙂 Shabbat Shalom!
Hi, instead of the apple sauce can I use an almond GF yogurt?
Hi Sony! Unfortunately no as the applesauce combined with the baking powder is what creates an egg-like consistency to bind the bread together. It may work but I’ve never tried myself. If you do try it out and it works, let me know! Enjoy 🙂
Did you use tapioca starch or was it tapioca flour? Thanks much.
they’re the same thing 🙂 Hope you enjoy!