Welcome to the only banana bread recipe you’ll ever need! Whether you’re gluten-free or looking for a breakfast or sweet treat made with healthy, nourishing ingredients, look no further than this almond flour banana bread. It’s made with no oil, butter, or refined sugar. But you’ll never know because it’s perfectly moist and sweet. It’s the perfect recipe to make when you have extra bananas or overripe bananas about to go bad.
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What readers say…
“Best banana bread in the history of the world. I am seriously in love with almond flour for baking, pancakes, et. al. Everything turns out SO MOIST. This banana bread recipe is off the chart.”
Roxanne
What Makes This Recipe So Incredibly Good
In our family, we consume grains, like einkorn and spelt. It’s not uncommon for us to enjoy homemade einkorn pancakes, sourdough bread, and einkorn muffins.
I’ve also come to love gluten-free flour, particularly recipes made with almond flour. This gluten-free banana bread recipe has become a favorite with our whole family. Here’s what I love about this recipe.
- Simple, Nourishing Ingredients: We’re all about simple, real food. This recipe is the perfect example of how a few simple pantry ingredients come together to create the most delicious banana bread.
- Super Moist: Almond flour makes incredibly moist baked goods. From the softest chocolate chip cookies and bread to pancakes.
- Natural Sweetness: Typical banana bread is made with added sugar, from brown sugar to cane sugar. Instead, this healthy recipe is a quick bread you can feel good about. It’s naturally sweetened with blanched almond flour or almond meal, honey or maple syrup (or stevia for a low-carb option), and extra ripe bananas.
- Zero Gluten: This bread is 100% gluten free and the perfect treat, make-ahead breakfast, or snack for anyone with a gluten intolerance or celiac disease.
Ingredients
To make the best almond flour banana bread, you’ll need a few simple ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups blanched almond flour
- 1/4 cup arrowroot flour starch
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 ripe yellow bananas
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup maple syrup or honey
- 1/4 cup plain whole milk yogurt or a dairy-free yogurt
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
What is Arrowroot Starch? Arrowroot is a white, flavorless powder. It’s similar to cornstarch (without the corn) in that it thickens food. Almond flour alone can result in a soggy, dense bread. Arrowroot starch (which is paleo-friendly, gluten-free, and vegan) improves the texture of almond flour treats. Arrowroot lasts a long time. Use it to make stir-fry sauce, almond flour chocolate chip cookies, this particular recipe, almond flour waffles, and homemade foundation powder or dry shampoo.
How to Make, Step by Step
To make this recipe, you’ll need a large mixing bowl, medium-size mixing bowl, and 9×5-inch loaf pan. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line the bread pan with parchment paper.
Step 1: Mix Dry Ingredients
In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: almond flour, arrowroot starch, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt.
Step 2: Combine Wet Ingredients
In a medium bowl, mash the bananas. Add eggs, maple syrup or honey, yogurt, and vanilla extract. Whisk until thoroughly combined.
Step 3: Combine Wet and Dry Ingredients
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Stir until combined. If you’re adding chocolate chips, walnuts, or dried fruit (see suggestions in next section), stir the ingredient into the batter now.
Step 4: Bake
Pour batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake, in the center of the oven, for 60 minutes or until the center is firm. Insert a knife in the center of the bread to check for doneness. The knife should come out clean when the bread is done.
Let the bread cool for at least 20-30 minutes on the top of the stove or a wire rack. Remove the bread from the pan by lifting the parchment paper out of the pan. Almond flour sets as it cools, so it’s important to avoid cutting the bread during this time.
Add-Ins
I love plain banana bread, but sometimes it’s fun to add mix-ins. Here are a few ideas…
Dark Chocolate Chips: Add 1/2 cup of milk chocolate chips or dark chocolate chips to the batter, stir to combine. Or use cacao nibs.
Walnuts: Add 1/4-1/2 cup chopped walnuts to the batter, stir to combine.
Dried Cherries or Cranberries: Add 1/4-1/2 cup of dried fruit, like dried cherries or cranberries, to the batter and stir to combine.
Variations
Make this recipe dairy free, egg free, or sugar free. Or, instead of bread make paleo banana bread muffins.
Dairy Free: This recipe calls for yogurt. Use plain Greek yogurt, whole milk yogurt, or make it dairy-free with a plain plant-based yogurt.
Sugar Free: Instead of honey or maple syrup, some readers have used 1/2 cup applesauce or 1/2 teaspoon stevia. I haven’t tried these sweetener variations, but readers have experienced great success with these sugar-free substitutions.
Egg Free: Some readers who need an egg substitute have used flax eggs. Instead of real eggs, make a flax egg by combining flax seeds and water. How to make your own flax egg (you’ll need 3 flax eggs). This variation may result in a flat bread (a bit more dense), but still delicious.
Pumpkin Bread: If you love this healthy banana bread, try making the pumpkin variation. Use 1 cup pumpkin puree instead of mashed bananas. Follow this pumpkin bread recipe.
Make Muffins: Most quick bread recipes are easily turned into muffins by decreasing the baking time. Spoon the batter into a muffin pan with muffin liners. Bake for 22ish minutes or until firm on top. You could also make mini muffins; just use a mini muffin pan. Or, for a flourless muffin recipe, make flourless almond banana muffins.
What’s the best almond flour to use?
Almond flour is made by grinding almonds into a powder. The flour is commonly used to make keto and low carb treats. It can be used to make cake, muffins, cookies, breads, or as a binder in meatballs or meatloaf (a gluten-free alternative to breadcrumbs).
There are two different types of almond flour…
Blanched almond flour: Made by grinding up almonds with the almond skin removed. This is done by dropping the almonds in boiling water, then cooling the almonds and peeling away the skin. Once the skin is gone, the almonds are “blanched.” Blanched almond flour is a yellow/cream color, and is typically light and fluffy. It’s ideal for making pastries, cakes, and breads.
Almond meal: Made by grinding up almonds with the skin. This flour is typically brown, has a coarse texture, and results in heavier, dense baked goods.
Which is best? I’ve used both almond flour and almond meal to make this bread recipe with great success. I prefer fine almond flour for a lighter texture, but almond meal may also be used in this recipe.
Can I substitute all purpose flour for almond flour?
All purpose regular flour is not a substitute for almond flour in this banana bread recipe or other almond flour bread recipes.
Almond flour, with the absence of gluten, doesn’t perform the same as a gluten-based flour like all purpose, whole wheat flour, or einkorn flour.
If you’d like to make a regular banana bread, with a gluten flour, make this einkorn and spelt bread recipe or einkorn maple-banana muffins. Einkorn is easier to digest than wheat, so it’s my preferred gluten flour.
Pro Tips for Best Results
1. Weigh the flour. There is one thing that you need for fail-proof baking: a scale. Well, actually, two things: a scale and quality ingredients. My cup of flour is probably not the same as your cup of flour. Not weighing flour may result in disappointment when making cookies, cakes, or quick breads. Plus, weighing ingredients is much easier; just keep adding ingredients to the bowl until the scale tells you to stop. I’ve been using this digital scale for a few years now.
2. Use parchment paper: Line the bread pan with parchment paper so it’s easy to remove the bread and let cool. This will prevent the bread from sticking to the bread pan and falling apart, which can easily happen with almond flour before it’s fully cool. Grease the pan with a bit of oil or butter, then place the parchment paper inside the pan. The butter/oil will keep the parchment in place so it’s easy to add the bread batter to the pan.
How to Store and Freeze
Because this bread is so moist, it doesn’t dry out in the fridge. Once the bread cools, store the loaf in an airtight container or bag for up to 1 week in the fridge. Eat at room temperature, cold, or reheat a slice in the microwave or a toaster oven.
The bread is even better the next day, so make this recipe for a prep-ahead meal for breakfast, a snack, or a dinner side dish. I’ll share a few serving ideas under the printable recipe, below.
Freeze the bread, once fully cool, in a freezer bag for up to 3 months. Freeze the bread whole or sliced.
Almond Flour Banana Bread
Equipment
- bread pan 9×5-inch loaf pan
- large bowl
- medium bowl
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups blanched almond flour (260g)
- 1/4 cup arrowroot flour starch (34g)
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 ripe bananas totally 1 1/4 cups once mashed (340g)
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup maple syrup (134g) or honey
- 1/4 cup plain whole milk yogurt (58g) or a dairy-free yogurt
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
- Line a bread pan with parchment paper, or grease with butter or coconut oil.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: almond flour, arrowroot starch, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt.
- In a medium bowl, mash the bananas. Then whisk in the eggs, maple syrup, yogurt, and vanilla extract. Whisk until thoroughly combined.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and stir until combined.
- Pour the batter into a bread pan. Bake the bread, in the center of the oven, for 60 minutes, or until the center is firm. You can insert a knife in the center of the bread to check for doneness. The knife should come out clean when the bread is done.
- Allow the bread to cool for at least 20-30 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan by lifting the parchment paper out of the pan.
- Slice and enjoy. Store any leftover bread in a bag or large airtight container. Store the bread in the fridge for up to 1 week.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Try these simple, reader-favorite recipes that are naturally gluten-free.
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Serving Ideas
Serve this bread as a sweet treat, breakfast, lunch, or snack (one of my favorite 31 healthy and easy snacks). Serve a slice by itself, topped with butter or almond butter, or serve a slice of bread with one of these delicious recipes for a complete meal.
For Breakfast
- Scrambled Eggs
- Spinach Feta Omelette
- Ham and Cheese Omelette
- Omelet Cups
- Healthy Yogurt Bowls
- Serve a slice with a homemade chai latte, iced chai tea latte, or pumpkin spice latte.
For Snack
- Spread two slices of bread with cream cheese to make a banana bread sandwich (also a great lunchbox meal)
- Top a slice of bread with butter or your favorite nut butter
- Serve with a cheese stick or rolled up turkey
- Enjoy a slice with a piece of fruit
For Dinner
- Serve as a side dish with a vegetable (frozen roasted vegetables are delicious) and chicken (whole roasted chicken or crispy chicken thighs)
- Serve as a side dish with a bowl of soup
- Serve on the side of a big salad, like Kale and Romain Caesar Salad
Came out PERFECT!!
Really fantastic recipe. Woke up and discovered 2 overripe bananas, and found your recipe, modified everything to 2/3 approximately since I had only two bananas. And used fat free Greek yogurt since that’s what’s I had. It’s a very forgiving recipe. Baked in a square pan for 45 minutes. Thanks for this, will surely make it many times!
What’s the nutritional breakdown – please.
Thank you
Hey Ronald, What specific nutritional breakdown are you looking for?–calories? sugar?
This is a great recipe! Thank you! I made it exactly like you stated and it was delicious! Made more to share with others. I look forward to making your other recipes. Thanks again for your efforts!
Awesome, Karen! I’m so glad you enjoyed the bread.
I’m curious how you store it. In the fridge? Or in the pantry ok?
Hey Ana, I store my bread in the fridge.
I just made this and followed the recipe with no substitutions…it was amazing! My family loved it too and didn’t even question/comment that it was “different” than the usual. This one will be the standard going forward. Thank you!
That’s fantastic, Sara!
This Banana bread is amazing. I made it dairy free as by using coconut milk vanilla yogurt and it was perfect.
Ive made this recipe a few times now and absolutely love it. I would like to make it in smaller mini bread pans to give has christmas gifts but im not sure how to modify the cook time to be able to complete them, or how many mini pans to use. Would you be able to help me in figuring this out? if not I under stand. Thank you so much for sharing your recipe and for any help you can give!
Hey Erin, I’m not sure how small the pans are, but my thought is you’d need more of a muffin bake time. So maybe around 22-25 minutes, and then check on one to see how done it is.
I just tried this recipe and followed it exactly and Boy what a disaster! I tried it twice one with a traditional bread pan and one with a stone pan and both I ended up throwing out. To say it was moist was an understatement. Soping wet is a closer description. I am very disappoint as it is a struggle to find anything gluten free that actually tastes great. On the positive….I will try this recipe again with some tweaking of course….The pieces that were not as wet (outside edge pieces) were really tasty!
Hey Leanne, Try adding 1/3 cup arrowroot starch. This should help solve the issue.
This was very delicious! Do you think I could use strawberries in place of bananas?
Hey Janna, I’m so glad you enjoyed it. I don’t believe strawberries will work.
Darn! I have been searching for a strawberry bread recipe using almond flour, but have not been able to really find any.
I’ve made this banana bread several times (with some minor modifications) with great success. I decided to try it with pumpkin purée. I subbed a box of organic pumpkin purée instead of banana. Unfortunately, the bread collapsed most of the interior had a pudding-like consistency and I couldn’t serve it to my company. however, it was delicious. I used the whole box, which was 16 oz. Was that the problem?
Hey Belinda, My thought is 16 ounces was too much pumpkin for the number of bananas needed. I would stick about about 1 cup of pumpkin puree for this.
This was so good! Do you think I could substitute the bananas with strawberries?
This is by far the best banana bread I’ve ever made/had… period. So much better than any with regular flour, my family was shocked to discover it was made with almond flour.
I’m literally using this recipe for the rest of my life.
Hey Danielle, I’m so glad you’re enjoying the banana bread!
I just made this and it really is the best! I made a couple of substitutions out of necessity, so I wanted to leave a review to let you know what worked. I didn’t have yogurt on hand, and I had just opened a can of full fat coconut milk for another recipe, so I added a little vinegar to make sour coconut milk so the baking soda would have something to react with. I didn’t have enough honey, so I used maple syrup. It just cooled enough for me to have a slice and it’s perfect! This is my first foray into baking since being diagnosed with a gluten sensitivity, and I’m very happy it was successful. I will make this again and again. Thank you!
Awesome, Andrea! I’m so glad you’re enjoying it!
Forgot to rate with stars, definitely a 5. But also wanted to add that my two dogs love it too. I don’t usually give them table scraps, but the ingredients in this bread allow them to have a bite! It also keeps beautifully in the fridge for many days.
Best banana bread in the history of the world. I am seriously in love with almond flour for baking, pancakes, et. al. Everything turns out SO MOIST. This banana bread recipe is off the chart. I am late to the party, but I am REALLY looking forward to checking out your other recipes; your web site looks fantastic. Thank you!
Hey Roxanne, I’m so glad you’re enjoying the bread.
Hi, Kristin, have had a “go to” banana bread recipe for some time, but was interested in experimenting with almond flour and glad to find your recipe with its minimal amount of sweetener. I checked the bread after 50 minutes and found it completely wet in the middle and quite dark on the outside. Left it in for cycles of five minutes until I finally pulled it out at about 1.15 minutes, as it was just getting burnt on the outside. I am a skilled cook, though not a frequent baker, and wonder if the problem is that I was baking it on the bottom third shelf rather than at the halfway mark/level. Also, I just watched the video — hoping to see an image of your oven! — and noted you used parchment paper…is that to obviate cleaning the pan? With many thanks! Susan
Hey Susan,
I’m sorry you had that experience. There are a few things I can think of (just troubleshooting):
1. Pan: Different pans (clear, dark, ceramic, etc.) need more of less time to cook. Another factor can be the position of the bread in the oven–this will also effect the baking time.
2. Flour variation: I’m currently remaking this recipe and weighing the flour amount to post. I think this one addition will help folks who are experiencing issues with the bread being undercooked. My thought is since the only measurement provided is a volume measurement (cups), we are using a different amount of flour, which is causing the bread to come out too wet for some folks. Weight measurements will fix this issue in the future. I apologize for not having weight measurements up when you made it. Now, keep in mind that almond flour does produce a very moist crumb, but it should be super mushy or undercooked. It should be very moist, though. Adding 1/4 cup of arrowroot starch to the dry ingredients will produce a bread that’s easier to work with as far as the moist texture.
Have you tried making this a pumpkin bread, subbing pumpkin puree instead of the bananas?
Hey Mindy, I have this recipe: https://livesimply.me/2014/11/03/ultimate-fall-baking-use-almond-flour-pumpkin-bread/
Absolutely the best banana gf bread I have ever made. Tried lots of recipes and this is definitely my favorite! Can I substitute the almond flour with a mix of coconut flour and oat flour? Or is texture compromised? Thanks!
GREAT recipe!
I substituted sour cream for yoghurt and agave for honey.
My family loves it!