The Best Gluten-Free Banana Bread! EASY to make with perfect texture and delicious flavor! Sure to become your go-to recipe!
This recipe has a few tricks so you get soft, moist, easy-to-slice and completely delicious gluten-free banana bread every time.
Is there anything better than a piece of warm banana bread slathered in butter? Dreamy. Everyone needs a go-to banana bread recipe!
Since going gluten-free I have tried a TON of banana bread recipes. Over the years I’ve decided my Mom’s recipe from growing up – tweaked to be made gluten-free – is my very favorite.
It is moist with the perfect amount of sweetness and banana flavor. Not to mention an ideal texture that is not crumbly, mushy or gummy like gluten-free baked goods can often be. Whenever I have brown bananas on my counter this is hands down my favorite thing to make!
If you love this bread be sure to try this Gluten-Free Pumpkin Bread. If it’s muffins you’re looking for, try these Gluten-Free Banana Muffins. Both recipes are made with the same gluten-free ingredients!
Ingredients You’ll Need
Here are a few notes on the key ingredients for this banana bread:
- Gluten-Free 1:1 Baking Flour: I like to use a high quality gluten-free measure-for-measure flour blend like King Arthur Flour in my baked goods. It works best to use a blend that contains xanthan gum in this recipe.
- Almond Flour: Helps with texture and browning. A touch of almond flour is also my secret to The Best Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies. See the recipe card for nut-free instructions.
- Organic Palm Shortening: Palm shortening gives this banana bread an irresistible crumb and texture. The palm shortening helps this loaf turn out easy-to-slice and cooked all the way through. My Mom used to use Crisco (which you can do too!) but I prefer organic palm shortening.
- A splash of milk: A few tablespoons of milk (or almond milk) help keep this banana bread perfectly moist
- Mix-ins! Add any mix-ins like chocolate chips, nuts or blueberries that you like! The possibilities are endless. You can use up to ¾ cup of any mix-in.
Note: A tub of palm shortening will keep at room temperature in your pantry for many months. I always keep a tub of it around to make this banana bread when we have brown bananas!
How to Make Gluten-Free Banana Bread
Start by whisking together the dry ingredients.
Mash up some very ripe bananas and mesaure out 1 cup. It’s important to use exactly 1 cup of mashed bananas for the right texture.
This recipe also doubles great. The recipe takes about 2 ½ bananas per loaf. So if you have 5 over-ripe bananas sitting around make two loaves! Nobody at my house complains when I do that!
- In a large bowl, add the shortening and sugar. Beat with an electric mixer until fluffy
- Add the eggs, vanilla and almond milk and beat for 1-2 minutes until light and combined.
- Add the ½ the dry ingredients and mix to combine.
- Add half the bananas and mix to combine. Repeat with the other ½ dry ingredients and bananas. (Adding them alternately helps the batter hydrate.) Fold in any mix-ins with a spatula.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake for 50-60 minutes until toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.
Mix-Ins
This banana bread is such a great base recipe! I love it a classic banana bread loaf, but if you want to add in mix-ins go for it! You can add ½ cup of the following:
- chocolate chips
- chopped walnuts
- chopped pecans
- blueberries
- coconut
My kids are a huge fan of making this banana bread an extra special treat with the additional of chocolate chips.
FAQ
Yes! Organic palm shortening is naturally dairy-free. Use almond milk for the milk and this banana bread will be dairy-free.
Yes! Swap the almond flour out for ⅓ cup more of gluten-free 1:1 baking flour. Use regular milk or rice milk in place of the almond milk.
Store any leftover fully cooled banana bread tightly wrapped in plastic wrap at room temperature. It will keep for up to 2 days.
You can freeze the unsliced, whole loaf by wrapping it tightly in plastic wrap and placing the loaf in a ziploc bag. Thaw the banana bread to room temperature before serving.
More Gluten-Free Baking Recipes
I hope you love this recipe as much as we do! If you try it be sure to leave me a comment/rating below. I’d love to hear from you!
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The Best Gluten-Free Banana Bread
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients:
- 1 cup gluten-free 1-to-1 all-purpose flour
- ½ cup almond flour
- 1 ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
Other:
- ⅓ cup shortening or butter, I use palm shortening
- ⅔ cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 tablespoons almond milk, or regular milk
- 1 cup mashed ripe banana, about 2-3 bananas
- ½ cup chopped walnuts, pecans, blueberries or chocolate chips (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a 9×5 loaf pan with cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Mash the bananas together in a small bowl.
- In a large bowl, add the shortening and sugar. Beat with an electric mixer until fluffy and combined. Add the eggs, vanilla and almond milk and beat for 1-2 minutes until light and combined.
- Add the ½ the dry ingredients and mix to combine. Add half the bananas and mix to combine. Repeat with the other ½ dry ingredients and bananas. (Adding them alternately helps the batter hydrate.) Fold in any mix-ins with a spatula.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes until toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.
- Cool for five minutes in the pan. Gently turn out onto a cooling rack and cool completely. Enjoy! Store covered at room temperature.
Melissa says
Wow, It was very moist and tasty indeed! Don’t feel like I am eating a gluten-free banana bread at all! I reduced the sugar (used coconut sugar) to half as I thought the bananas already contain lots of sugar and it tasted just right! Thank you for this recipe Erin!
Jenny Spencer says
By far the BEST GF bananna bread I have ever made. I felt as if I had scored a touch down when I took my first bite of this perfection. To whoever is reding this: YOU MUST MAKE THIS!
Thank you Erin for this recipe!
-Raine
Annie says
Thank you so much for this recipe. Best ever. I’ve made it twice now and it’s lovely. So moist and tasty. I used walnuts in the first and pumpkin seeds in the second.
Erin Collins says
I’m so glad you like it! Those additions sound delicious!
Julie says
I have made this twice and it is awesome! Everyone loved it! Thanks
Melissa says
Five stars! This is the most perfectly moist banana bread! It’s hard not to have more than one piece 🙂
Alene says
Wonderful! If my non gluten free husband likes it and readily eats it, then I know it works. I used butter and whole milk and raisins in my banana bread. My mother always put raisins in hers, so I like to use them too. Perfect banana flavor and nice crumb too. I love having a banana bread because sometimes a slice is all I want at breakfast. This is going to be my go-to recipe! Thank you!
Claire says
This GF banana bread recipe truly is “the best”! The texture is perfect and the flavor divine. The most recent time I made this recipe was a few days ago, when I had 5 ripe bananas begging to be turned into bread. I doubled the recipe as per the instructions, but realized I was 1/4 cup short on mashed bananas. With no applesauce to be found, I opted to sub nonfat greek yogurt. I also decided to try using coconut oil as the fat, because I have about a gallon of it after my last trip to BJs. I was definitely worried about the texture of the batter, as even after vigorous mixing with an electric mixed it still looked lumpy and sad thanks to the chunks of coconut oil. I prayed to the baking goddess and put them in the oven, and when they came out all my fears evaporated. The real test, of course, came when they had cooled, and my goodness I’m surprised I didn’t eat a whole loaf right there. I regained my self control and put one in the freezer, and went to town on the other. So, fellow bakers, I had total success subbing up to 2 tbsp per loaf of bananas with greek yogurt, and using coconut oil as the fat. I also added 1/4 cup each of chopped pecans and chocolate chips to one loaf, and the results were divine. Happy baking!
Erin Collins says
Thanks for the comment! So glad to know it worked out with those substitutions. 🙂
Deb says
This is my go to recipe for great banana bread. Yum!
Samina says
This banana bread is awesome! So moist and flavorful. It’s a keeper.. thank you for the recipe!
Erin Collins says
I’m glad you liked it! 🙂
Vyvoom says
I made with Lakanto monk fruit sugar & used a 1:1 ratio for the substitution. Also, i did everything in food cuisinart to assemble. Unbelievable how D-Lish this recipe is!!!! Omgosh ty!!!!!
Linda Kaka says
Sounds perfect can’t wait to try it
Kim Monteith says
Well this gluten free banana bread is a real keeper. I had 9 frozen bananas so I tripled the recipe and made three loaves. It uses a combo of 1:1 flour and almond flour. I also used 1.5 cups of chopped walnuts ( 1/2 c per loaf) and I also added an extra 3 tbsp of lactose free milk ( 1 tbsp per loaf) and an extra tsp of vanilla . Baked for 58 minutes at 350 ( 50 just wasn’t quite enough) . Came out perfectly! Moist ( not grainy at all) and great banana flavour. I also used Fluffo shortening.
Kim says
This was so good. I replaced the sugar with organic stevia ,and used no sugar added chocolate chips AMAZING!!
Jenna says
Turned out amazing! So yummy.
I don’t eat eggs so I subbed in bobs red mill egg replacer and then used butter instead of shortening but wow the texture is just perfect.