Gluten Free Banana Bread: Sweetened with Dates and Bananas
This gluten free (oat flour) banana bread is a family favorite. If you would like an added protein punch there is an option for a slightly higher protein version of this bread in the ingredients and directions below.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups oat flour (I use my blender to blend up some oats) We buy our organic oats at Thrive Market.
- 1 tsp (preferably aluminum free) baking powder You can make your own. See Notes below. **
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp sea salt I buy my Redmonds Sea Salt at Thrive Market.
- 1 TBS cinnamon
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- a dash ground cloves
- a dash of ginger
- 1 tsp vanilla extract with no added HFC or natural flavors
- 2 cups over ripe mashed bananas (about 2 bananas)
- 2 farm fresh eggs
- 5-6 dates for blending (use more if you have a real sweet tooth)
- 1 TBS coconut oil plus extra coconut oil for greasing pan Update: My daughter LOVES this bread when we substitute the coconut oil with organic valley ghee. You may want to try that version if you are not dairy free.
- Added protein option: I like substitute 1/4 to 1/2 cup of beef collagen for equal parts flour some days for an extra protein punch in my bread. I buy mine at Thrive Market. I’ve yet to find it cheaper anywhere else.
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease your Pyrex loaf pan with coconut oil.
2. Make your oat flour in the blender or food processor (by blending some old fashioned or quick oats) if you haven’t already. Then set the oat flour aside for later.
3. Place 5-6 pitted dates into the food processor (<—this is the one I have and it’s fantastic!) and process until it becomes a paste. Tip: If the dates are not soft you can soak them in filtered water ahead of time. This makes them easier to blend into a paste.
4. Add bananas, eggs, coconut oil, vanilla extract, and bananas and blend thoroughly.
5. In a large mixing bowl add all your dry ingredients and mix (oat flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, ginger, and collagen-if using). If I’m in a hurry I just dump all the dry ingredients directly into the food processor and it mixes well. Make sure to scrape off the sides between blends so that everything becomes thoroughly mixed.
6. Add your mixture from the food processor into the bowl of dry ingredients and mix until there are no dry clumps.
7. Scoop your mixture into a greased bread pan. I love these Pyrex glass bread pans. I have 5 just like this.
8. Place bread pan into the oven and cook for 35-45 minutes (until you can put a toothpick in the middle and it comes out clean). Don’t cook for too long or it wont be as good and will turn out dry.
9. Take out your bread and allow to cool a bit before slicing.
10. Enjoy!
You will want to store this bread in the refrigerator after it has fully cooled. I would also suggest freezing (in individual slices or half the loaf for later) whatever you wont eat in the next 3 days. Then you can have more for later. Because of the lack of refined sugar this bread wont keep long. But we usually gobble it all up in 3 days or less so it’s not an issue for our family.
Here is my finished banana bread!
I love to eat this with homemade almond butter!
So there you have it. Let me know if you have any questions about the recipe in the comments below. What do you like to top your banana bread with?
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**I make my own baking powder and it’s super easy. Just mix 2 parts cream of tartar to 1 part baking soda (for example 2 TBS cream of tartar with 1 TBS baking soda). I usually make a cup of it and store for later.
