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.
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.
Recipe
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
- â…“ 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
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper so that there is an overhang on both sides.
- Place the dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk together.
- 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.
- Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir until combined.
- 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.
- Let cool completely in the pan before using the parchment paper to remove the loaf for slicing.
Notes
Nutrition
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?
Lara
Can you use Olive , vegetable or another type of oil ? I’m m not crazy about the taste of coconut
Kelly Roenicke
Sure, any neutral tasting oil will work!
Renee Roberts
I’ve made this a couple of times for my vegan friends and EVERYONE has loved it. However, is there an alternative to using coconut oil? A friend really wants to have some but she is allergic to all things coconut. I don’t use the coconut sugar but am not certain it would taste right with another type of oil. Maybe applesauce? But with the chocolate? I’m not sure. (It is incredibly hard to find vegan recipes without coconut in them!)
Allispn
Could oat flour work?
Christine
This was so good! Used three very ripe bananas (medium sized), 1 cup gluten free blend + 1/4 cup coconut flour plus I added some cheeky chocolate chips (just couldn’t resist) and baked it for a bit longer. Tastes amazing! Had half of it tonight haha…
Sharon
This bread looks absolutely delicious! Since bananas vary greatly in size, could you estimate the cup-measure of bananas that were used? Thanks.
Kelly Roenicke
I’d guess about 3/4 cup!
Marie
Thank you for the recipe, I love it!
I made it twice and tried to replace the bananas by 1 1/3 cup of apple sauce the second time, it was delicious!
Kelly Roenicke
So glad you like it!
Bianca
I was wondering. Could I substitute cassava flour in this recipe? Often it can be substituted as 1:1. Was wondering if you think it would work.
Kelly Roenicke
I have never tried that, so I’m not sure! If you try it, let me know!
Mamapeck
I’m excited to try this, I have been making my Almost World Famous Banana Pecan Chocolate chip Bread for YEARS!! I’m 62. My daughter and her family are vegan and my hubby and I don’t mind eating vegan with them. I’m always trying to adapt recipes for them. G kids are 4, 6, 8, and 9. Thank you for the recipe and your notes.
Kelly Roenicke
I hope you love it! :)
Julie Sadler
We always have extra bananas and I love making this recipe! It’s outstanding. My family loves it as well and they’re not even Gluten intolerant!
Keep up the great recipes; Kelly!
Marjorie Sperling
Just finished making this Chocolate Banana Bread and it is the best I’ve ever had to date. It is absolutely amazing.
So moist and chocolatey (I also added allergy free chocolate chips to it). I have tried numerous recipes but none compares to this one. You would never know it is Gluten Free!
Kelly Roenicke
So happy you loved it!
Dianne Barratt
I really am enjoying your recipes. One thing that would make it even better is to have the temperatures in celsius as well! Your Australian counterparts would appreciate it too. All the best with what you have chosen too do to make the world a happier place.
Thank you
Kind regards
Dianne
Crystal
I made this and am allergic to coconut anything. I substituted the coconut oil for butter (I know, not vegan but also not death), used regular sugar, and lemon juice instead of apple cider vinegar. It smells amazing. It was also incredibly powdery when I was mixing so I added a little almond milk. I seperated the mix into two separate pans. I have never made banana bread until now, so hopefully it’s pretty edible. :’)
Fiffie
So yummy (even though I put too many bananas, still turned out good!)! I love that it’s not full of sugar and unhealthy crap. It’s better than anything I could buy in the store! I will definitely be making this again!
Kelly Roenicke
So glad you love it, thanks for letting me know!
Kaely
I’ve commented before, but I wanted to again for the sake of others who are new! We LOVE this recipe. We use it constantly. I have made it with many modifications due to what I had on hand, etc. Today I used avocado oil instead of coconut, and only had about 3/4 Cup coconut sugar, and used 4 very ripe bananas. I made them as mini muffins instead of a bread and they worked great! It takes about 8-10 minutes give or take (I didn’t time them precisely) at 350 in mini muffin pans and made about 36. I stuck a pecan on the top of each and that tastes delicious too. I hope that helps for anyone wanting to modify!
Kelly Roenicke
I’m so glad to hear that! Thank you for your substitutions!
Prudence
I made this recipe today and it had a wonderful flavor. I did however, like a few people stated above, need to add more liquid to my batter. This could have been due to my banana size or because I added a tad bit more cocoa power to my mix (about two tbs). So I added about 1/4 more coconut oil to get everything moist and threw it in the oven for 35 minutes. It came out great and I will make again. Thanks for sharing.
Kelly Roenicke
Glad you liked it! Yes, sometimes the banana size or the flour you used could make a difference.
Ann
Just made this today into mini cupcakes (used only half the recipe) with just plain organic sprouted brown rice flour and no other gums.Amazing!!! My kids ate the whole 24 cupcakes in no time.
I also used only 1/3 cup of the sugar,and it was still sweet enough.
Will be making another batch in a few minutes.
Thank you for this amazing recipe.
Ann
I just want to say that I am still making these for my kids, but I stopped using sugar altogether and the taste is amazing.You can add a few roasted nuts or chocolate chips and very ripe bananas. I double the vanilla as my kids are not banana fans.Great healthy treat for the kids.
Kelly Roenicke
That’s wonderful to hear!
crystal gay
I don’t know if my first comment went through, so let me ask again. I love the taste and the top was good. But it would never cook all the way through. Any thoughts on what i may have done wrong?
Kelly Roenicke
What type of flour did you use?
Gabrielle
Hi, i dont understand..i did exactly as written (and my bananas were superrr ripe) except i used coconut flour and it is so dry it looks like sand. Is it because of the flower? The other comments and pictures make it look so great that I would like to do it again but correctly.
Kelly Roenicke
Coconut flour doesn’t work well unless there are eggs or a ton of liquid, becuase it just soaks up all the moisture. A gluten free flour blend like King Arthur or Bob’s Red Mill will work.
Ritika
Thanks for the recipe. This is the first time I baked with coconut sugar and am glad I did! It turned out to be so tasty. I followed your recipe totally, it tastes amazing! Just one question how would you store this bread? Refrigerate or at room temperature?
Kelly Roenicke
Yay, so glad you liked it! Thanks for letting me know! I would store it at room temperatre in an airtight container.
Leary
I made this for Bible study. But I replaced the cacoa powder with Carob powder. I also don’t use baking soda I just put aluminum free baking powder. It taste great. And my 8 years old the one who made this.
Kelly Roenicke
Glad you enjoyed it, thank you for letting me know!
MK Hansen
Have you tried using honey instead of the coconut sugar?
Christina
I also was wondering if this substitution would work?!
Kelly Roenicke
I have never tried it, but my guess is that the batter would be very wet, and I don’t know what the texture of the loaf would be.
Claudia
I completely replaced the sugar with agave nectar. 3/4 cup of it seems to be the right amount. You can do 1/2 a cup and still taste good. I have done your banana bread so many times! I top it with chia, oatmeal, pecans, and flax! Thank you for this recipe!