My goodness. I really want to give you guys a good recipe post right now. I want to write something long, and inspiring, or at least entertaining.
But…I want to do that less than I want to sleep.
To all other sorority girls out there, it’s polish week. Or work week, or prep week, or whatever you call the week before recruitment.
If you’ve gone through it, well, you know that it is exhausting! Fun, because I’ve been with my sisters non-stop, but we’ve also been going long hours and I need to sleep! So, unfortunately, all your getting out of me tonight is a kick-ass recipe for paleo, refined sugar free, gluten free, delicious almond banana bread.
This stuff is healthy, and while it doesn’t taste like chocolate cake, it’s actually really good!
My sister devoured two loaves in as many days, and her boyfriend referred to it as “the bread of the gods”. My sister is gluten-free, but her boyfriend isn’t, so that definitely tells you something!
I also love that this recipe uses coconut oil! It’s one of my new favorite products to use, because it’s so darn versatile My favorite way to use it is in cooking (obviously), but my sister slathers it all over her body in place of body lotion (and she always smells great) and I know some people use it in their hair too.
I get my coconut oil from the awesome people at Tropical Traditions*. They offered me a free bottle of their Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil to try, and the stuff is absolutely amazing. I’ve created a ton of recipes using it that I can’t wait to share here! If you’re unsure of coconut oil and it’s uses (I know it seems like a total fad thing, but I think it’s here to stay), the site has great info about how to use coconut oil.
As for the texture, this bread is dense, but super flavorful and isn’t dry or crumbly at all. The coconut oil and bananas keep it super moist (ew, that word). It’s amazing with a slather of peanut butter, a thin layer of coconut butter, or a pat of butter.
It’s sweet, which is wildly impressive considering except for 1 tablespoon of honey (that’s nothing!), it’s sweetened solely by bananas. I also love doing the no-grain thing in my gluten free baking recipes, because almonds and coconuts (the flours I used) taste like they belong in a dessert or baked good, unlike other weird gluten free flours that just leave a bad aftertaste.
If you’re looking for something a tad bit healthier than your typical banana bread, try this recipe out! You won’t be disappointed.
Ingredients
- 2 medium bananas, mashed
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup (4 oz.) almond flour
- 1/2 cup (2 oz.) coconut flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 cup chopped almonds
- 1 teaspoon turbinado sugar (not paleo, totally optional!)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 5x7-inch loaf pan.
- Mix together the bananas, coconut oil, honey, vanilla, and eggs until completely combined. Add in the almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon and stir until all the ingredients are fully incorporated.
- Pour the mixture, which should be thick, into the prepared loaf pan and smooth the top. Sprinkle the chopped almonds and turbinado sugar evenly over the top.
- Bake for 32-35 minutes or until the bread is golden brown and a knife comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes and then invert onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- Keep tightly wrapped for up to 3 days.
Notes
I use Honeyville brand almond flour and I haven't tried this recipe using a different brand, so if you try something else, let us know how it works in the comment section! For the coconut flour, I use Bob's Red Mill, which is readily available at most grocery stores. This recipe is heavily adapted from Running to the Kitchen
*Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of their coconut oil to try. I had no obligation to write about it, or to write anything positive. If you order by clicking on any of my links and have never ordered from Tropical Traditions in the past, you will receive a free book on Virgin Coconut Oil, and I will receive a discount coupon for referring you.
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Since this appears to be dude-approved I am gonna make this for my little guys! They are banana bread junkies, but I don’t like to feed them sticks of butter on the regular. I LOVE coconut oil; I think you’re right… totally here to stay!
I love this banana bread so much! I bought all the ingredients to make it in sf but David wants me to wait a little because he doesn’t want to eat the whole loaf alone!! :-)
I’m not gluten free but I love banana bread and I try to eat pretty healthy. My baking? not healthy at all so maybe I need to give this a go. I’m so intrigued by the coconut flour and almond flour in this bread! I’ll be making this one for sure. Lovely!
A dense, wholesome banana bread. Love that you use coconut flour in this banana bread…must be extremely delicious.
What would the 2 medium bananas equal, 1 cup mashed?
Thanks,
Kirk
It actually should be about 2/3 cup of mashed banana!
Wow Rachel! These are fabulous looking. You tell a beautiful story with your photos girl. Good luck with work week! <3
This looks so pretty and rustic – your photos are always too beautiful, lady!
I could just eat a slice of your almond banana bread! It looks yummy and so simple to make. Thanks for sharing!
Rachel! thanks for sharing. I LOVE banana bread. I can’t wait to try it.
I never thought to do those two together. Looks great!! I’m definitely giving it a try. I’ll share if my ‘son” likes it. He has to approve all foods for our blog. http://www.glutenfreemiracles.com
Definitely let me know how you like it! Hope it gets son approval :)
Just made this tonight for the first time and wanted you to know it is fantastic! Thank you for sharing the recipe–I am newly wheat-free and sugar-free and with one very small edit this recipe was perfect for me. :) Found your blog via chowstalker I think… Thanks!
Just made this and I actually only did .5 tsp of salt and they were still far too salty!! Kinda disappointed:(
Shandi, I’m sorry that happened! Plenty of people have made this recipe without salt issues, so I’m curious as to what kind of salt you used. None of the other ingredients should be salty, unless you homemade your almond flour using salted almonds. However, regardless of the issue, I’m sorry it didn’t work!
I’ve been using coconut oil on my face at night for the past few months and I love it! As it is a detoxifier I broke out after two weeks, however since then it’s been delightful! I really recommend it and using organic coconut oil is so much cheaper than the rosehip oil I was using!
I just made this banana bread last night! I wanted it to be a little bit sweeter so I added an extra tablespoon of honey and used walnut flour instead of almond flour. It came out great- very moist!!
I had a slice with my morning coffee and so did my husband and he loved it. Thanks!
You totally had me at “Bread of the Gods!” Obviously I need to make this now. Thank you!! :)
Ok, I have a weird question. How does this bread toast up? My husband loves banana bread, but we’ve gone Paleo and have yet to find a banana bread that holds up well in the toaster and gets a good crunch on it. They mostly burn a bit around the edge.
Hi Crissi. I’m actually not sure how it does in the toaster, I haven’t tried it, but my sister threw it into a saute pan with a bit of coconut oil and it was HEAVENLY! Definitely got that toasted crunch. Let me know how it holds up in the toaster if you decide to try it!
I am in love with this recipe! Almonds and banana are meant for each other :)
It says not sweetened except for honey but there is sugar. Is that needed or could I just leave that out?
Yup – I meant to note that the sugar is just optional to give the topping some crunch. You can definitely omit it.
This. Looks. Amazing.
This is genius! I LOVE almonds and I LOVE banana bread – the perfect combo I need to try this! Awesome post!
can you leave out the coconut flour and just use 1 1/2 cups of almond flour?
I wouldn’t recommend it. Coconut flour absorbs a lot more moisture than almond flour does so it wouldn’t turn out correctly. I’ve never tried omitting the coconut flour, so I can’t recommend any alternatives. Sorry!
When you say Coconut flour, Is it some kind gluten free flour mixed with coconut powder or just finely ground coconut powder?
The recipe looks very promising. I was so happy that I have ALL the ingridients except cocnut flour. Can’t wait to make it. I am a big fan of banana bread.
Thank you for posting the recipe.
Coconut flour is a flour made out of coconut fiber! It can be purchased at most health food stores or in the healthy foods aisle of your local grocery store. A little goes a long way! You can read more about it here. It’s definitely worth going to get! :) Let me know if you have any other questions.
Thanks for the details. I got it from whole foods store. I tried the recipe and it exceeded all my expectations.
It vanished in one day. My family loved it.
I was looking for a gluten free version of my favourite coffee-time snack,banana-walnut bread.
This was actually yummier.
I noticed you said “1 cup (4oz)” is this a typo or is it by weight? Because one cup is 8oz. :)
And as a side note we are trying this with fresh almond meal instead of almond flour, one banana instead of two, and two eggs instead of three in order to find out if it will be less eggy/mushy as our last batch from a different recipe.
One cup of almond flour weighs four ounces. Ingredients differ by weight at the volume of one cup. I’ve never tried this recipe will less bananas, less eggs or homemade almond flour but I wouldn’t recommend making the changes because this recipe is different from the last one you tried and the ratios here are what have proven to have worked. The consistency will be completely different if you lower the amount of eggs and banana.
I made this recipe on the weekend and it was delicious! It is a good thing the boyfriend moves fast or he wouldn’t have had a single slice it was that good!! Plus it made my condo smell heavenly…way better than any candle from Bath and Body Works :)
One small issue: following your baking time, the loaf was still raw. I had to leave it in the over for about 60 minutes, bumped up the temperature to 375F and it still was a bit raw on the inside. Not sure if it was because I was using a glass loaf pan or perhaps my ingredients, but the extra wait time was torture.
Would love to see more recipes with coconut flour and almond flour.
Susan
In this case, baking time can definitely be dependent on the thickness of your pan, different ingredients, etc. Also, every oven is different so that could play into it too. With natural ingredients, different brands tend to have different fat contents, etc. which can mess with the liquid ratios as well which impacts baking time. However, I’m so glad you liked the loaf, and I’m definitely planning on doing similar Paleo treats soon!
I just made this bread in a 5×9 pan versus a 5×7 and cooked it for 22 minutes and it turned out fantastic!!! It comes out thinner but equally as delicious (I have made this bread before). I also added chocolate chips which make it a little more decadent.