Grain-Free Banana Bread

Amazing! So moist and delicious. Followed recipe as written but subbed walnuts for hazelnuts. This recipe will be on definite repeat!

I’ve just put the loaf in the oven. I’m looking forward to tasting this bread.

I used raw Oregon Hazelnuts, I found them somewhat difficult to crush.

I didn't have enough arrowroot so I made up for it with the buckwheat. This banana bread has the perfect flavour and just the right sweetness. This will be our go-to recipe for banana bread!

so many comments! but I couldn't find one that asked this - what if you don't have any buckwheat flour on hand? I have everything else. Could I use regular flour, cake flour, ground up oats, flax, quinoa? Guessing not coconut flour as I know that throws everything else off..

This is so freaking good. I prefer it with walnuts instead of hazelnuts (feels like the hazelnut flavor is a little too bold and overpowers the banana and buckwheat flavor), and added 3 oz of dark chocolate chunks. It's amazing - my office and my family looooooove and can't believe it's grain free!

This turned out great even with the improvisations I made due to ingredients on hand. I used 1 cup GF pastry flour, 1/2 Cup buckwheat flour, a TSP arrowroot for dry ingredients. For wet, I subbed Agave for the maple syrup and walnuts for the hazelnuts and canola oil for the coconut oil. Added 1/2 tsp of cinnamon per comments. It turned out delicious but cooked far faster than noted in recipe -- at 40 minutes, the edges were burning although the rest was done perfectly. I'd go 35 minutes next time.

This was not a success for me, unfortunately, but in light of all of the glowing reviews, I am sure it is a mistake I made myself. I don't have a scale, so looked on the King Arthur website for volume conversions; I also used olive oil instead of coconut oil and kind of guesstimated the equivalency in weight/volume. I followed everything else to a T (and included cinnamon- which is a must!). The banana bread tasted good but was dry and crumbly. I definitely think I did not include enough liquids somewhere, I am sure it has to do with a shoddy conversion (I also was a bit low on maple syrup- that may have been part of the problem). I would certainly try this again and increase the liquids. Thank you Shauna!

Could I substitute the arrowroot and buckwheat with an all purpose GF flour (Pamela's)? I'm really glad to see your recipe, and I look forward to trying it in the next few days - the bananas are almost ready!

Hope you can tell me the dimensions of a one pound loaf pan, as written in this recipe. Thanks!

To "prep" ripe bananas easily: every time you have a banana that is getting too ripe, put it in the freezer-peeled or not. If peeled, put it in a freezer bag. When you are getting ready to bake, put it on the counter for an hour or two to thaw. Slice off the end of the thawed unpeeled banana, and squeeze it out like a tube of toothpaste.

This smelled wonderful and tasted delicious too! I used sliced almonds for the nuts since I had them on hand, olive oil for the coconut oil. Not too sweet , which is how I like it. The buckwheat flour added a nice complexity. Yum!

Mine also turned out great. I added a 1/2 cup of chopped pecans, because I love the flavor combo and texture. Thank you Shauna!

Scrumptious! Mine turned out much darker than the photo, I don't know why, but it was delicious. It didn't need butter, but I slathered some on it anyway and made a meal of it. Several meals, actually.

Every week I get 3 bananas in my CSA box. Every weekend I make your amazing bread and we feast on it all week! Thanks for all the effort you put into creating your recipes.
PS am so looking forward to my Kickstarter flour mix!

pub-lish
1. (of an author or company) prepare and issue (a book, journal, piece of music, or other work) for the public.

Shauna, since your recipes are published, for the public, not just for your own personal use, I think it would be doing a great service to people who have followed and loved your books from inception, if you would include both weight measurements and volume measurements in all your recipes. Yes, it's a little extra work for you as the author but it shows a tuning-in and respect for your readers.
I purchased your book, Gluten Free Girl, the moment it became available. I have made many of your recipes and purchased every other book that you and the Chef have written. But I find myself becoming increasingly irritated and aggravated by assumptions that you seem to make as far as availability of ingredients to the average person living in the average community. Most people do not live in wonderful Seattle where you can literally get anything you want as far as ingredients go. When you publish a recipe and blithely assume that everyone has a local pig farmer that they can consult about the exact cut of meat and the pigs diet, I start to roll my eyes and lose interest.

I also bake using weight measurements but most people don't. When I share a recipe with a friend who I know does not have a gram scale I am always careful to give them the approximate equivalent in a volume measurement. I realize that this is not an exact science but the recipes turn out fine and lovely even when the volume measurements are used.

We all live in a real world. Your readers, and fans, live in a wide assortment of communities. It would be much appreciated if you were able to acknowledge this fact.

Many thanks

Poor Shauna! I was amazed to read some of the nit picky and outright aggressive comments below. People, figure out how you need to eat for 'you' and your needs. If you don't eat sugar, or meat, or dairy that's just super. But why beat someone up for being patient enough to deconstruct a much loved baked good recipe so that it's grain free? And then shares it! I have to shake my head at people who have nothing better to do than whine that a recipe wasn't custom made for them or worse: accuse a kind and well meaning person of being disingenuous.

I made this nut-free and it is honestly the best banana bread I've ever had! I have a whole grain GF mix of equal parts buckwheat, millet, and sorghum so I used 150 grams of that in place of the buckwheat and almond. Also used tapioca instead of arrowroot because that's what I had in my fridge, and butter instead of coconut oil. I upped the butter to 90 grams to account for the lack of almonds but it may not have been necessary. I also used chocolate chips instead of hazelnuts. :) Of course, it's no longer grain free or dairy free at this point, but this recipe will definitely be my go-to for banana bread from now on. Thanks, Shauna!

Simple and delicious! Thanks for awesome recipe.

My son can't stand the taste of almonds and seems to taste it even when it's hiding amongst other flavours. Do you have any other suggestions for the almond four? Thanks.

I have made this at least five times now, and it never fails. Delicious and easy - the only "prep" is buying bananas in advance and waiting for them to ripen. Thanks for this great recipe.

Oh my yumminess!!! I was drooling reading the ingredients!!! If only I knew where to buy half of them, though!!! :( Iowa is so slow to progress!!!!!

Yes, need to point out the cinnamon omission as well! Would love to know how you prefer it, Shauna!

Is there a substitute for arrowroot?

when you first click on the link for this recipe it calls for 1/4t cinnamon. however, when you click the "save and print" link to get the full instructions to make the bread, the cinnamon is omitted. I made the bread from that link and thus omitted the cinnamon. It was DELICIOUS, however, when I make it again I will definitely add the cinnamon!

Shauna, thank you so much for this wonderful recipe! We are gluten free and mostly dairy free and moving more and more towards grain free. My whole family loved this bread! My kids don't like nuts in their baked goods so I used chocolate chips instead. Oh so good!

As a follow up, I made this earlier today and brought it to a gathering. Followed the recipe pretty much to the letter except I needed to add some almonds to get to the 3/4 cup of nuts. It was a big hit, so moist and not too sweet. And 6 hours later, it's still moist and yummy. Yay!

Shauna I am thrilled that you are moving away from refined carbs in your recipes. I too am coming to the realization that I don't feel great after refined gluten free flours. And people, no one will ever confuse a nice 'sweet' bread from a savory one. Ya gotta have a little sweetness in your life!

I have this recipe in the oven. Can't wait to try it. I think of the recipes on this website as a "baseline" for my own experimentaion. The fact that Shauna went to the trouble of sharing is much appreciated, and good enough for me. I will experiment with sweeteners, etc., as I see fit, and hold Shauna and her opinions and comments about such, as interesting, perhaps helpful, however, inconsequential to my personal taste, experience, and most important, free will. If one does not agree with someone's approach to a recipe, they should keep it to themselves, it takes the fun out of the whole purpose of this website! There is a place for helpful and casual comments, but, where has common courtesy gone? I say, thank you to Shauna, and I will let you know how my bread turns out!!

I have one child who is Gluten Free and two who are not. It has been tricky to find baked goods that they all enjoy. I'm happy to say that this recipe knocked the ball out of the park - I made it as mini muffins and the kids devoured the whole batch before they had time to cool.

I made this last night, and we are all enjoying it for breakfast this morning. My 2 1/2 year old cannot eat gluten, and I really appreciate your website and recipes for giving me the confidence to bake and cook gluten-free. Thank you!

Seriously awesome! I added agave instead of maple syrup, and a little less than the recipe called for primarily because I like things a little less sweet but still, truly divine!

Goodness, I sit down to the computer for the first time today and find a firestorm of comments! Good. Conversation is the point here.

First of all, I probably don't have to say this, but I certainly haven't deleted any comments! I don't have access to the system here. I merely wrote the recipe and sent it to my editor. Nor would I delete a comment about maple syrup.

To answer the question about maple syrup, I don't believe it's any healthier than refined sugar. Sweeteners are sweeteners. There are many folks who talk about the fact that maple syrup still has some vitamins and minerals, while refined sugar has none. I don't get my vitamins from maple syrup, however. If you choose to make a baked good, for the most part you need a sweetener. (You're free to try a baked good without one. Let me know how it works!) And so, I like the maple syrup here because I like the flavor of the maple with the almonds and the bananas here. As I wrote, this is really about the flavors.

In fact, as you will see if you look at the headnote again, I never said this banana bread was healthier than a banana bread made with sugar. I wrote that I like the flavor better.

Healthy is a subjective term. A vegan wouldn't believe that a meat eater's diet is healthy. Someone who eschews all sweeteners, including fruit, would never approve of this recipe. Recipes are really just offerings. If it appeals to you, then make it!

Please use volume measurements, at least for liquids. A cup of water is a cup of water. A 1/2 cup of coconut oil is a 1/2 cup of coconut oil. I can go either way on measuring flours by volume or by weight, I don't have a preference because my baked goods come out great no matter how I measure them. However, I really appreciate it when recipe writers include both weight and volume measurements for dry ingredients. That way, nobody is left out.

I wonder why they allow comments if they don't respond to the questions...

I was just saying that maple syrup is not significantly different from refined white sugar as far as nutrition goes, but many people seem to think that it's superior. Same thing with honey and other "natural" sweeteners. Both my comment and someone else's on the subject disappeared. Are substantive discussions not allowed on this site?

Why was my comment about sugar deleted?

I made this today and it is wonderful. Very moist and rich tasting. This is my banana bread recipe from now on.

Yes please can we have volume measurements

Your recipes always sound so good..wish you would include ounces as a measurement.

Pumpkin bread is my favorite... what flour would you recommend using for pumpkin bread?