Paleo Banana Bread
Posted Jan 04, 2018, Updated Jun 17, 2024
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This is the best Paleo Banana Bread recipe! It’s easy to make, moist with a beautiful crumb and tastes like it’s from a bakery but it’s grain-free & dairy-free, with no refined sugar.
Banana bread is always in season! And this bakery-quality paleo banana bread recipe is the best you’ll ever try!
It truly is the best grain-free banana bread I have ever eaten. Here are a few reasons why I love this recipe, and you will too:
- It’s so moist with a beautiful crumb.
- The ingredient list is short, and consists of items you probably always have on hand (including overripe bananas – which, let’s face it, we all usually have sitting on our counter or in our freezer)!
- It’s a healthy and nutritious treat that doesn’t taste like it – it’s truly decadent and delicious.
Paleo Banana Bread: Ingredients & Substitutions
Here are a few potential substitutions that can be made in this recipe. I do not recommend altering the amount or type of flour at all. Paleo baking is truly a science, and the ratios & kinds of flours used in this recipe were carefully tested and chosen.
- Coconut oil. Grass-fed butter or ghee are good substitutes.
- Almond butter. Cashew butter is the best substitution, but any nut or seed butter can be used in this recipe.
- Maple Syrup. Honey is a great substitute.
- Mix-ins. These are optional but recommended. You can use baking chips, nuts, seeds, dried fruit, shredded coconut, etc.
Paleo Chocolate Chips & Bars
Sometimes it’s hard to figure out which chocolate chips are Paleo, so here are some of my favorite healthier chocolate options.
- Hu Kitchen Chocolate Gems. This is my favorite paleo chocolate. These gems are delicious and easy to toss into cookies (no bar chopping required).
- Hu Kitchen Dark Chocolate Bars. You can also buy dark chocolate bars and chop them up to toss into these paleo chocolate chip cookies.
- Lily’s Dark Chocolate. They make chips and bars that are stevia sweetened, low carb, keto, etc.
- Enjoy Life Foods Dark Chocolate Chips are a good option that are vegan, dairy-free but not fully paleo.
How to Make Paleo Banana Bread
Let’s walk through how to make paleo banana bread step-by-step, and don’t forget to watch the video for additional guidance.
Begin by preheating your oven to 350 degrees F. Then, line an 8×4” loaf pan with parchment paper and grease. Set aside.
Note on pan size
I prefer an 8×4″ loaf pan, however, you can use a 9×5” pan but your loaf will be thinner. You will also need to decrease the baking time by 5 minutes.
Then, combine coconut flour, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a small bowl and set it aside.
Then, in a large, glass mixing bowl melt together coconut oil and almond butter (for about 1 minute on high), stir until combined.
Next add the mashed banana, maple syrup and vanilla extract stir until combined. I like to add these ingredients before the egg to make sure the mixture is cool and the egg doesn’t get cooked when added!
Then, stir in the egg until the mixture is smooth.
Next, add the dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until completely combined. Let it sit for 2-5 minutes to thicken slightly.
Once the paleo banana bread batter has thickened, stir in your desired mix ins ( we always choose chocolate chips). Here are some suggestions:
- Chocolate Chips (milk, dark, light, etc.)
- Walnuts
- Pecans
- Cinnamon chips
- White chocolate chips
- Blueberries
- Dried fruit (cranberries, rasins, etc.)
- Swirl of peanut butter or Nutella
- Unsweetened coconut
Then, evenly spread the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake in the preheated oven until the top is set and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let the paleo banana bread cool in the pan for at least 30 minutes before gently removing the loaf from the pan to a wire rack to cool completely before cutting and serving.
Serve
Serve this bread warm with a slather of grass-fed butter (or cinnamon honey butter), almond butter (homemade vanilla almond butter), or peanut butter.
Store
Store this paleo banana bread recipe in an airtight container or plastic bag to ensure it does not dry out. If you plan on eating the entire loaf in a day or two, you can store it at room temperature. If it will take longer, I recommend storing it in the refrigerator.
Freeze
This paleo banana bread freezes very well. I recommend freezing it in slices in an airtight container. That way you can pull out a slice at a time to enjoy.
Paleo Banana Bread Recipe FAQs
Make sure you use overripe, brown bananas. They have the best flavor, maximum sweetness, and are the easiest to mash! They should be very dark brown or almost black and soft to the touch.
Yes, you can double this recipe and bake it in two loaf pans.
Yes, fill the wells of a standard muffin tin with 1/4 cup of batter and bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes.
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Best Paleo Banana Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 large overripe bananas (1 cup, mashed)
- ¼ cup coconut oil
- ¼ cup creamy almond butter
- 2 Tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 eggs lightly beaten
- ¼ cup coconut flour
- ¼ cup almond flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8×4” baking pan (you can use a 9×5” pan but your loaf will be thinner and baking time will be less) with parchment paper and grease. Set aside.
- In a small bowl combine coconut flour, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.
- In a large, glass mixing bowl melt together coconut oil and almond butter (for about 1 minute on high), stir until combined.
- Add mashed banana, maple syrup and vanilla extract stir until combined.
- Stir in egg.
- Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until completely combined. Let it sit for 2-5 minutes to thicken slightly.
- Gently mix in chocolate chips.
- Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 30-40 minutes, until top is set and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Let cool in the pan for at least 30 minutes before gently removing the loaf from the pan to a wire rack to cool.
- Slice and serve.
Video
Notes
- Coconut oil. Grass-fed butter or ghee are good substitutes.
- Almond butter. Cashew butter is the best substitution, but any nut or seed butter can be used in this recipe.
- Maple Syrup. Honey is a great substitute.
- Mix-ins. These are optional but recommended. You can use baking chips, nuts, seeds, dried fruit, shredded coconut, etc.
- Hu Kitchen Chocolate Gems. This is my favorite paleo chocolate. These gems are delicious and easy to toss into cookies (no bar chopping required).
- Hu Kitchen Dark Chocolate Bars. You can also buy dark chocolate bars and chop them up to toss into these paleo chocolate chip cookies.
- Lily’s Dark Chocolate. They make chips and bars that are stevia sweetened, low carb, keto, etc.
- Enjoy Life Foods Dark Chocolate Chips are a good option that are vegan, dairy-free but not fully paleo.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Would you mind sharing if you used the 8×4 inch or the 9×5 inch loaf pan for the banana bread shown in the photos?
Best recipe!! My banana bread is so sweet and moist.
Do you think nutmeg would be a good addition to this recipe?
Sure! It never hurts to try!
Just made these. The taste is very good! But I had same issue with mine being too moist in the center. I actually made muffins thinking this would help prevent the problem but it didn’t. They were dark brown on top borderline burning so I couldn’t bake them any longer.
But otherwise the recipe was great! Hoping I can figure out how to make them less moist. Maybe more coconut flour?
It’s possible your oven bakes warmer? Are you using convection, if so, decrease the temperature by 25 degrees F. Maybe you have large bananas? If you increase the coconut flour I’d only do it by 1-2 TBS.
This truly is the best paleo banana bread recipe. It was delicious and I have found many recipes online do not live up to what they claim. This one did. I doubled the recipe because I had so many frozen bananas and it worked out beautifully. Highly recommend this recipe.
We love this recipe! This banana bread is moist, filling, and something I feel good about my teens snacking on!
I doubled the recipe and used 3/4 cup almond flour and 1/4 cup coconut flour as I find it a little too dense with a 50/50 ratio of the two flours.
Thanks for sharing this gem!
We have made this recipe at least 3x in the last week. We used cassava flour instead of coconut because that’s what we have in hand. My only complaint is each of the 3x we’ve made this, it’s very wet seeming… almost like bread pudding or possibly undercooked (my toothpick comes out clean). Perhaps this could be because I’m not using coconut flour? Or Is this the way it should be? Because of this, we store it in the fridge and it’s otherwise fantastic!
Also, the second and third time, I used my own homemade walnut butter.
I added walnuts to a loaf, fresh blueberries to another, and fresh raspberries to another. Yum!
Coconut flour is extra absorbent, so if you are substituting cassava, I feel pretty certain that you would need to increased the amount of the flour.
Unbelievable no sugar, used Rice chocolate chips and moist and yummy couldn’t use almond flour or almond butter as my mother in law is allergic
Thank you Liane!
I have been making this recipe often for years. It’s my go to baked good for my family and they love it. I have a 6 and 3 year old and one on the way. I have made a few changes here and there depending on what I have. I sub the almond flour for chestnut or tiger nut sometimes and I’ve done a few other flours. It always turns out great. The chestnut flour is really nice. I also use pb most of the time since it’s cheaper. Lately I’ve been adding 2 tablespoons of hemp seeds for an extra nutritional boost.
This recipe is moist and delicious as long as you don’t over cook it. I usually make muffins and the second they start to show some browning on top I pull them out.
Fantastic recipe!
I only have almond flour.. can I just use that instead of the mix??
No, coconut flour absorbs significantly more moisture than almond flour.