4.75 233 Published Jan 22, 2015, Updated Feb 08, 2024 And this banana bread recipe is not only gluten-free, but it’s also grain-free, dairy-free and paleo. It’s flavorful and moist with a semi-crisp exterior and it’s easy to cut without being overly crumbly and falling apart. We’ve been eating this banana bread for breakfast, as a snack or as an after-dinner dessert. Isaac loves it warm (I pop it in the toaster oven for a few minutes to reheat), but I think it’s delicious at room temperature. I like that it’s portable as well — just last week I cut off a big chunk of the loaf and took it with me as a travel snack. Honestly, I was trying to save a slice to share with my friend, but I ended up eating it all while on the plane. Oops!
What is Coconut Flour?
Coconut flour is a naturally gluten-free flour made from dried coconut meat that has been ground. It’s unsweetened, although the natural sugars in the coconut give coconut flour a mildly sweet flavor. Coconut flour contains more fiber than any other flour, making it especially filling. The high amount of fiber also makes coconut flour super absorbent so when using it for baking you typically can’t use it as a 1:1 sub for all-purpose flour or even almond flour.
Tips for Baking With Coconut Flour
In most baking recipes you can not use coconut flour as a a 1:1 sub for all-purpose! You’ll usually want to start with 1/4 or 1/3 cup coconut flour to replace 1 cup of all-purpose flour. You might also need to increase the liquid in your recipe and the amount of eggs. In most coconut flour recipes you’ll see a large amount of eggs used. Eggs provide extra moisture while also helping baked goods made with coconut flour bind together and rise. When measuring coconut flour, I recommend scooping it with a spoon into your measuring cup and leveling it off with a knife rather than dipping it into the bag of flour and packing it down. You can also use a food scale to get a more precise measurement. Unless you’re a recipe developer and have time and money to spend on ingredients for testing, I don’t recommend trying to convert recipes that use all-purpose or wheat flour on your own. It can take a lot of trial and error. I recommend finding well tested recipes and using those!
Coconut Flour Banana Bread Ingredients:
mashed bananas – you’ll likely need 2-3, depending on the size of your bananas. eggs almond butter coconut oil vanilla coconut flour baking powder baking soda sea salt chocolate chips – I prefer to use Lily’s dark baking chips because they’re sugar-free and vegan.
Substitutions & Notes
Flour – As mentioned above, you can’t sub in another flour for coconut flour in most recipes so I don’t recommend using a different flour. This recipe was created specifically for coconut flour. Eggs – I haven’t tried using a vegan substitute for the eggs in this recipe, but someone did let me know they used flax eggs and the bread turned out, but it didn’t rise as nicely and had a denser texture. Let me know in the comments below if you try a vegan version! Almond Butter – You can use a different nut butter as a sub for the almond butter. You could also use tahini or sunflower seed butter if you need a nut-free option. Coconut Oil – The coconut oil and almond butter replace traditional butter in this recipe, but if you don’t have coconut oil you can use butter or another oil instead. Chocolate Chips – The great thing about this bread is that it’s sweetness comes from the banana and the chocolate chips, but you can totally skip the chocolate chips if you want this bread to be free from any added sugar. You could also sub in something else like blueberries for the chocolate chips!
Storing Coconut Flour Banana Bread
Allow your banana bread to cool completely before storing. I recommend storing in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one week. You can also freeze banana bread for up to three months. When you’re ready to eat it, you can eat it cold or at room temp, but I prefer to heat it up in the toaster oven.
More Coconut Flour Recipes to Try
Coconut Flour Pancakes Banana Coconut Flour Mug Cake Coconut Flour Cookies Gluten-Free Sugar Cookies Coconut Flour Muffins
More Quick Bread Recipes to Try
Healthy Banana Bread Vegan Apple Bread Chocolate Banana Bread Vegan Zucchini Bread Low Sugar Pumpkin Bread Strawberry Banana Bread
