A delicious and healthier twist on an old favorite – this chocolate banana bread is gluten free and refined sugar free! A homemade dessert that everyone loves.
classic vegan and gluten free banana bread recipe
Banana bread is one of our favorite things to bake at our house. It’s simple to make, most people love it, and it’s easy to make it gluten free or vegan. If we’re travelling, I’ll often bake banana muffins or banana bread to take along with us – it makes a great breakfast or snack for the road!
This is a fun variation on the normal recipe, because it combines two delicious flavors – bananas and chocolate. You maybe surprised at how easy this chocolate banana bread is to make. Yes, even if you have multiple food allergies, you can still enjoy fresh baked banana bread that holds together well, looks good, and most importantly, tastes good.
One of the secrets to this gluten free chocolate banana bread is to use very ripe bananas – I’m talking over ripe bananas that have been stashed in the freezer and are now extra sweet. They’ll give this bread great flavor and keep it tender and moist. <– Not a fan of that word, but it’s true.
Another thing that helps this loaf turn out well is using a glass loaf pan lined with parchment paper. You won’t have trouble with this bread sticking if you use parchment paper. This type of loaf pan works really well (affiliate link).
Variations on this chocolate banana bread:
- you can make muffins if you prefer, just shorten the baking time – 16-20 minutes should do it
- you can add chocolate chips or chocolate chunks if you want a little more sweetness
- you can add coconut flakes or seeds or nuts to the batter if you wish – be creative!
The other great thing about this recipe is that it’s a little bit healthier than your normal banana bread…it’s refined sugar free!
Of course, if you don’t love coconut sugar, you can go ahead and use regular sugar or a blend of regular sugar and brown sugar. You could also add chocolate chips if you wish. If you aren’t gluten free, this recipe should work just fine with regular flour or spelt flour. This recipe will not work with coconut flour.
Just mix this batter in a bowl with a spoon – no electric mixer required!
Spoon the chocolate batter into your prepared loaf pan, and bake. Less than an hour later, you’ll have a delicious loaf of chocolate banana bread!
This gluten free chocolate banana bread is great for breakfast, a snack, or a healthier dessert. If for some reason you have a lot of leftovers, I think that it would freeze very well.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
Chocolate Banana Bread (Gluten Free, Vegan, Refined Sugar Free).
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups gluten free flour blend*
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 cup coconut sugar
- ⅓ cup organic coconut oil measure when solid, then melt it in the microwave
- 2 very ripe bananas
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- ⅜ cup water
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper so that there is an overhang on both sides.
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Place the dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk together.
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Place the bananas in a separate bowl and mash with a fork. Add the melted coconut oil, vanilla extract, apple cider vinegar, and water. Stir well.
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Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir until combined.
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Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
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Let cool completely in the pan before using the parchment paper to remove the loaf for slicing.
Recipe Notes
*King Arthur Multi Purpose Flour works well, as do blends by Bob's Red Mill or NOW Foods.
There, now you’ve got an easy recipe for the next time you’re overrun with brown bananas. Or am I the only one that has that problem?
Shalane Knox
Amazingly surprised at how moist and decadent this bread is! So very delicious!
Kelly Roenicke
Wonderful! Thanks for letting me know you liked it! :)
Barbara
That looks amazing! What could you use instead of the vinegar?
Kelly Roenicke
Lemon juice would work!
Yashika
Hello is it possible to use oat flour / chick pea flour instead of the gluten free flour? I dont have any gluten free flour and it’s difficult for me to purchase it on a student budget.
Kelly Roenicke
You can try it but it may be a bit denser.
Cynthia
I just made this recipe. I used 2/3 cup coconut sugar, 3 bananas, instead of water I used almond/coconut milk and added dark chocolate chips. It turned out very good and moist. Thank you for the recipe:)
Kelly Roenicke
So glad you liked it, your changes sound good!
Amanda Bidwell
Hi Kelly, your chocolate banana bread is the best recipe for this combination. I did add the zest of an orange and some roasted pecans and the orange zest does kick the flavor up a notch. You might want to try it with zest the next time. Chocolate and orange is one of my favorite candies, (when I used to eat candies). Just want to say thank you for sharing. I will be making this often. Amanda
Nicole
This was scrumptious! Thank you. The only strange thing was that I doubled the recipe and that made only one loaf. Maybe the tin I used is large.
Vilma Z.Briz
Hi.Good day.Am a mother of 4y.o just a month ago when we found out thru allergic test that my daughter was allergy to wheat,milk,soya&egg white.Some fruits also if were given like mango,grapes,strawberries.We feel so much sorry to her coz all d food mostly she like before suddenly not allowed to her.Esp the milk that she used to drink before goin in bed now not allowed.We tried to give alternative like coconut with rice but it was only refreshing juice but since am here in saudi am having hard time to dind the product.Can you please help me some recipe in cake that easy to cook & ingredient that can be found in kitchen.shes goin to school soon i need it badly in preparation.Only your receipe i saw gluten,egg free.dairy free.Give me aome advise that will help.us a lot.By the way am a filipino.Your reaponse will appreciate.
Kelly Roenicke
I’m so sorry, I know how hard it is to manage multiple food allergies! This recipe is pretty easy – http://theprettybee.com/2013/10/easiest-gluten-free-vegan-chocolate-cake.html I hope that helps!
Kalli
I made this today and it is incredible! Instead of the 1 cup coconut sugar, I used 1/2 C packed brown sugar + 1 Tbsp maple sugar and it was perfectly sweet. I also added 1/2 tsp cinnamon.
Jess
Can you use regular flour?
Kelly Roenicke
Yes, you can!
Kaely
I just want to tell you all that I tried this banana bread tonight and it doesn’t disappoint! I made it with 4 bananas (smallish frozen ones) instead of 2 because I wanted to add some sweetness and I used oat flour instead of a GF blend and it worked great! I also baked it in a pie pan (with parchment) as I don’t own a loaf pan and it baked for about 25ish minutes and looks SO GOOD. Thanks for a great recipe!
Kelly Roenicke
So glad it worked for you! Thanks for letting me know!
Awdur
I have made this several times and I love it. I’ll admit that I did use frozen bananas, but it turned out fine. Also, for effect I used about half the cocoa and swirled it in.
Samantha
This recipe sounds divine. I just put mine in the oven in a muffin tray (don’t have a loaf tin – still building our kitchen supplies up haha). I added 1/4 cup of dairy free choc chips because I couldn’t resist a little extra decadence.
My oh my, I licked the bowl clean! The batter is so creamy it tastes like chocolate mousse to me – I wonder if it would firm up in the fridge at all… The taste is fabulous – can’t wait til they are finished baking :)
Samantha
Update – Out of the oven and cooled. Absolutely delicious, wonderful texture, would 100% make again! Thank you!!!! <3
p.s. flour I used was orgran gluten free plain flour
Kelly Roenicke
Wonderful! Thank you for letting me know!
Kelly Roenicke
You could try almond flour, but it will probably make the bread dense. Coconut flour is very hard to work with without using an egg.
Maggi
This looks so good! Just one question – do you use refined or unrefined coconut oil? Thanks!
Kelly Roenicke
You can use either based on your flavor preference! I use unrefined.
Kara Falvey
Oh man, this looked so good that I decided I had to make it. It’s in the oven now. Can’t wait to try it!
Kelly Roenicke
Hope you loved it!
Laura
I made this recipe earlier today – into muffins – and just tasted one to make sure they would be good enough to give as a birthday gift for my brother and now i can’t stop eating them! Their texture is just like that of regular muffins. They are moist and have no hint that there’s no gluten or eggs in them! I’m so glad i stumbled on this recipe after years of baking gf/df/ef, it’s nice to find a recipe that is easy and tastes delicious. thanks!
Jett Presser
Could these be made as muffins instead? Do you know how to alter the cook time?
Kelly Roenicke
I think that would work fine, just start out with about 12-15 minutes and watch them.
Stephanie
This recipe is amazing. I put the batter in miniature Muffin tin pan. And they came out like little cupcakes. I found that the batter very dry when I was mixing it up. So I added a couple table soon fulls of coconut milk. And the end result was super moist and totally amazing little miniature muffins. You’ll never know or suspect how healthy these really are. My 3 year old gobbled them right up. I have saved this recipe to my favorites file on pintrest. Thank you.
Kelly Roenicke
Yay, sounds so good! I love those variations! Thanks for sharing!