We need to talk about this flourless banana bread…
Eating this delicious banana bread will probably remind you of a giant oatmeal chocolate chip cookie…
And you’ll still be dreaming about it for days after it’s gone, wishing you could have some more.
The recipe can be easily modified to fit different diets:
✓Flourless
✓Refined-sugar-free
✓Vegan, gluten-free, & oil-free options
Also Try This: Carrot Cake Banana Bread
Without any flour weighing down the recipe, the sweetness of the bananas really shines through.
Wholesome oats add substance, giving this bread its deliciously hearty texture.
And of course chocolate chips make everything taste even better… although the flourless banana bread is actually really good even without them!
You can also add raisins, shredded coconut, cinnamon, walnuts, or even dried cranberries for a Fall-ish banana bread.
Adapted from my Chocolate Banana Bread, which was the #1 most repinned recipe on my website for the month of September!
Guess you all really like banana bread!
Sorry, pumpkin.
The first step to making the flourless banana bread is to put the oats in a blender and blend until a fine powder forms.
This is what you’re using instead of flour in the recipe. Or for grain free, you could do the same thing with quinoa flakes if you’d prefer.
I also am working on a banana bread recipe using almond flour, so hopefully that one will be posted soon!
Got leftover bananas? Here are my favorite Banana Recipes – Over 30 Healthy Ideas
Flourless Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups mashed banana (420g)
- 2 1/2 cups rolled oats (For low carb, try this Almond Flour Banana Bread)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup milk of choice OR oil
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup, agave, or honey
- 1 1/2 tbsp vinegar
- 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F, and grease a 9×5 loaf pan very well, making sure to go up the sides. Put the oats in a blender and blend until a fine powder forms. Add all other ingredients (except optional chips) and blend until smooth. Stir in optional chips if using. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, then bake on the middle rack for 35 minutes. Turn the oven off, but DON’T open the oven. Let the bread sit in the closed oven for another 10 minutes. Then remove from the oven and let cool completely before going around the sides with a knife, then inverting onto a plate.View Nutrition Facts
Notes
More Healthy Breakfast Recipes:
Flourless Banana Blender Muffins
Peanut Butter Brownie Baked Oatmeal
Keto Muffins – 6 Ingredients
You are the QUEEN of banana bread! It seems like you’ve recreated all kinds of loaves! This looks like the easiest banana bread recipe ever! I would love to see more!
Cannot wait to try this one Katie! Thanks for all you do. 🙂
This looks amazing!
how necessary is the vinegar?
any substitutes?
I added the same amount lemon juice and it turned out perfect!
The vinegar will react with the baking soda to make it fluffier. Apple cider vinegar will work as well as the other person who mentioned lemon juice will do the same. If you omit, it will be more dense and possibly gooey in the center.
I followed the recipe to the t and my banana bread was very very gooey in the middle. .!
Hm, is your oven calibrated? If not, you might just have to bake longer is all! 🙂
Hello, I just made the bread tonight and my center was completely gooey as well. I’m cooking to for longer to see, hopefully it doesn’t dry it out.
I know what’s on my weekend to-do list..make this! It looks so yummy! Thanks for the recipe!
What type of vinegar did you use?
Since she didn’t mention a different type, it is just plain, clear vinegar. However, you could also use apple cider vinegar or lemon juice.
No way! I posted a recipe very similar to this a few months back ( https://peanutbutterandle.wordpress.com/2015/05/13/banana-bread/ )! Great minds think alike! Bananas + oats rock, and I love your idea of adding in raisins, walnuts, or cranberries for a fall flair. These pictures and your recipe looks wonderful as always 🙂
Hi, Katie. Banana bread is great, but we are a pumpkin family. Could we sub in pumpkin for the banana? Or not, you have lots of pumpkin recipes but the oats sound do good. We love your cookbook, too.
She does have a pumpkin bread recipe in her cookbook. However, if you want to try this one because of the oats, it would probably work out subbed equally. You may need to increase bake time a little… in my experience, pumpkin tends to take longer to bake. That’s a great idea… I may have to try it myself. 🙂
Also, you might want to increase the cinnamon a little and add nutmeg and cloves if using pumpkin… if you like your pumpkin “spicy” like me and my family does.
Ok, I tried it! I replace bananas with 1 cup pumpkin, added 2 tsp cinnamon, and a dash of pumpkin pie spice. I left it 10 min longer in oven. Tastes good, but very mushy in the middle. Needed still more cooking time. Still, not too bad! Thanks for tips!
Oh, I forgot to mention that with pumpkin bread, you might want to add more sweetener because pumpkin is less sweet than banana. Use granulated or decrease liquids if using more liquid sweetener. You and your family seemed to enjoy the taste, though, so that tip is for anyone else who might read this.
As for the baking time, I’m sorry, I didn’t notice the recipe states to bake for only 35 minutes and then leave in the oven for another 10 minutes after turning off the oven. I don’t know if my oven is just not as hot as hers, but I find that sweet breads like pumpkin or banana breads need to bake for usually 45-60 minutes, sometimes a tad longer if it’s pumpkin. I think vegan baked goods take a little less time if I’m remembering correctly, and perhaps gluten free might take even less time, but I haven’t experimented with gluten free flours in the oven yet (I haven’t been running the oven here because it’s been way too hot, so I’m forgetting… been doing microwave “baking”). So maybe checking it with a toothpick in the center at about the 45 minute mark to see how it’s coming along might help. I’ll probably make this soon to see if this is right. Sometimes baking is a little more trial and error. Oh! Baking in muffin tins might turn out better… if you do that, baking time would be much less, though… more in the 20 minute range.
Btw, breads that are a bit mushy in the middle tend to mold quicker, so you might want to refrigerate after a couple of days if it’s not already gone. 😛
Got the email today, made it this evening, just eating it now 🙂
Lovely! Thank you, Katie 🙂
Wow. I need to make this banana bread, and the chocolate one and everything delicious-looking thing on this blog. I may be a while 😉
The definition of flour is “a powder obtained by grinding grain, typically wheat, and used to make bread, cakes, and pastry.” So oatmeal ground up in a blender is, in fact, flour. Maybe you could change that to “wheat flour free,” which would be accurate. This recipe certainly has merit in it’s own right, but flour-free it is not. Anyway, I love your site and your recipes – rock on but please consider this in the future. 🙂
I’d have to agree. I love her site, but if there was one thing I could change, it would be that the “sugar-free” recipes were actually sugar free or to be retagged as “no sugar added” and have a separate tag for actually sugar free recipes. Sometimes I find it easier to adapt her regular recipes to sugar free than to search under the sugar free tag, which is usually date sweetened. I also hope that no one makes one of the date sweetened recipes for a diabetic family member and tells them it’s sugar free… it concerns me sometimes. That said, I still love the site and visit it quite frequently.
Agree, this is flour. If you are managing your glycemic index, it is important to keep it as a whole grain.
My mom makes a great loaf of banana bread but, sadly, full of sugar and flour! I’ll have to try this recipe to get my banana-bread fix while still keeping on track! Thanks Katie.
Sounds so delicious, I am obsessed with banana bread at the moment and on a mission to try every recipe out there – this one is definitely next on my list!
Bell xx
Wow looks amazing as usual, Katie. I’m currently agonizing over a Vitamix purchase. Which one do you have, and how do you like it? I’m looking at either the C 5200 or 500 or the 750. I want to be able to make nut butters and milks as well as use it for daily smoothies and stuff. Any advice?
Hi! I have an older model, so it’s the very basic. It is powerful enough even to make ice cream from raw nuts 🙂
Its not gluten free if you have rolled oats in the ingredients…..
Yes it is, you just have to be sure to buy certified gluten-free oats.
Trader Joe’s and Bob’s Red Mill both sell gluten-free rolled oats. It’s labelled right on the package. (I’m in the US and you never stated where you were located so I can’t say more.) I believe the only place oats aren’t considered GF is Australia because their CD Association considers avenin too close to gluten, even though many with celiac do not react nor do they show up as positive for gluten when grown in a gluten-free way (dedicated fields and all that jazz). In the US and I believe in Canada and the EU, they are considered cross-reactive along with a myriad of other foods such as millet, dairy, and soy.
If you are sensitive to even certified gluten free oats, you could always try one of her other banana bread recipes that have an all purpose gf flour blend as an option in the ingredient list like this one:
https://lett-trim.today/2011/11/02/polka-dot-banana-bread/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
This sounds fab! QQ: how many bananas do you estimate to be 1 3/4 cups mashed banana? Thanks!
A small banana is about 1/2 cup, so it would be about 3-4 bananas. Maybe smash up three and then measure and see if you need another…
How many bananas did you use? Can’t wait to try this ^_^ I have decided to cut out flour and sugar from my diet. This bread looks so tasty. I’m so excited!
A small banana is about 1/2 cup, so it would be about 3-4 bananas. Maybe smash up three and then measure and see if you need another…