The Best Paleo Banana Bread Recipe that only requires a handful of basic ingredients! This easy healthy banana bread recipe is so easy to make using your blender or a mixing bowl and turns out just like the real deal.
Made with almond flour and pure maple syrup, this comforting banana bread is grain-free, oil-free, dairy-free, and refined sugar-free.
If you’ve been around my site a while, you know I have a ton of recipes for banana bread. Some classic, like my The BEST Gluten-Free Banana Bread Recipe, some flavored with different goodies like my Paleo Carrot Cake Banana Bread.
It goes without saying that my love for banana bread runs deep.
This recipe for Paleo Banana Bread is a classic for anyone who eats grain-free or follows a paleo diet!
Just like traditional banana bread, it has a tender crumb and is exploding with banana flavor with warm hints of cinnamon.
It’s a tried and true reader favorite from October 2014, and has been made hundreds, if not thousands of times!
And for a good reason! It’s grain-free, dairy-free, oil-free, has AMAZING texture, is so moist and fluffy yet dense, loaded with natural sweetness and banana flavor.
I’m willing to bet your friends and family won’t even realize it isn’t regular banana bread.
There is just nothing cozier than a big hunk of fresh-out-of-the-oven banana bread. And healthy banana bread that tastes like the real deal without a lot of added sugar and just the right amount of sweetness? Even better!
Let’s discuss the simple ingredients for this healthy banana bread recipe.
Ingredients for Paleo Banana Bread:
Almond Flour & Tapioca Flour: The combination of almond flour and tapioca flour yield a texture that is very similar to regular all-purpose flour. It holds together well, and is nice and light and fluffy!
If you don’t bake using tapioca starch, you can replace it with 1/3 cup of additional almond flour or arrowroot starch. I recommend using fine almond flour for the best texture.
Ripe Bananas: The all-star here! Overripe bananas bring the sweetness and moistness to the banana bread without needing oil! They do a marvelous job of generating rich, flavorful banana bread, and we hardly need to add any additional sweetener.
Be sure to measure the mashed banana (you’re looking for about 1.5 cups) for the best banana bread because bananas vary in size. I also recommend using regular ripe bananas at room temperature rather than thawing previously frozen banana for the best results.
Eggs: That element that helps fluff up the banana bread and hold everything together! If you can’t do eggs, check out my Chocolate Chip Paleo Vegan Banana Bread, which uses flax egg.
Pure Maple Syrup: We add just a touch of pure maple syrup to bring out more sweetness and richness, but not much is needed! If you go entirely sweetener-free, feel free to skip the pure maple syrup!
Note: if you replace the pure maple with honey, keep a very close eye on the bread while it bakes, because honey burns at a lower temperature than pure maple syrup, and your bread can turn out a little overdone.
Replace the pure maple syrup with coconut sugar or brown sugar if you’d like.
Baking Powder and Sea Salt: Baking powder helps leaven the bread and sea salt enhances the flavor and brings out the natural sweetness.
There are some folks who don’t love to bake with baking powder – if this is you, skip it and add an extra tablespoon of tapioca flour.
Optional Add Ins: Pure vanilla extract, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, chopped walnuts, chocolate chips or dark chocolate chunks
While these ingredients aren’t mandatory, they definitely enhance the experience!
This recipe is made super quickly and easily using a blender. You can also fashion up the bread batter in a mixing bowl, but I find just tossing the ingredients in a blender and blending until smooth is the simplest way with minimal cleanup.
Tip For The BEST Paleo Banana Bread:
The bananas. They make all the difference, since we’re using so many and they make up the majority of the volume of the bread.
The key to a stellar banana bread is using bananas that are so brown they’re practically fermenting. Overly-ripe bananas are real moist-makers.
How to Make Paleo Banana Bread:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a 9″ x 5″ loaf pan with parchment paper.
Mash the bananas in a measuring cup to be sure they come out to about 1 1/2 cups when mashed. Adjust as needed.
Add all of the ingredients (including the mashed bananas) to a blender and blend until smooth.
Note: You can also prepare the banana bread batter in a large bowl by first mashing the banana until it’s nice and creamy.
Pour the banana bread batter into the parchment-lined loaf pan and bake in the preheated oven for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the banana bread is firm on top, golden brown, and baked through.
If the banana bread becomes too dark on top at any point, you can cover the loaf pan with aluminum foil.
Allow the bread to cool at least 20 minutes before slicing and serving.
Serve warm with almond butter, peanut butter, and fresh fruit for a delicious afternoon snack.
Recipe Tips/Troubleshooting:
When I initially posted this recipe in 2014, I would periodically get a comment or email letting me know the banana bread turned out under-baked in the center.
This can happen for a number of reasons, so here are some tips to ensure your loaf turns out nice and fluffy (and baked all the way through!)
1.) Mash the bananas and measure them – Make sure your bananas are measured out to be 1 1/2 cups when mashed.
2.) Use finely ground almond flour – Bob’s Red Mill fine almond flour is my favorite, and is the only flour I have used to test the recipe. Other brands may be used, but other brands have different absorbencies, so you may need to make alterations to the amount of liquid if you go with a different brand.
3.) Line the loaf pan with parchment paper – I find my quick breads (regardless of the recipe) fall flat when I don’t line my loaf pan with parchment.
4.) Bake until the center of the bread rises up and feels firm when gently poked. Depending on the elevation at which you bake, you may need to adjust the bake time. You can test the internal temperature of the bread.
Quick breads are considered fully cooked when they reach an internal temperature of 200 degrees F. Simply insert a digital thermometer into the center of the bread to ensure it is fully baked.
5.) Don’t over-mix in your blender – If you feel more comfortable using mixing bowls for preparing batter, simply beat the wet ingredients (bananas, eggs, pure maple syrup, vanilla) together in a mixing bowl, then add in the remaining dry ingredients and mix until combined.
That’s it! An easy banana bread recipe with great texture for a healthy breakfast or snack that the whole family can enjoy.
Store any leftovers in a zip lock plastic bag or airtight container in the refrigerator or freezer.
If you would like to make this recipe in a muffin pan, make my Paleo Banana Muffins, or bake fill a muffin tin with the batter and bake at 350 for 20 to 25 minutes.
Prefer using coconut flour over almond meal? Make my Coconut Flour Banana Bread!
The next time your sweet tooth is talking to you, whip up a batch of this grain-free banana bread!
If you love baking quick bread recipes, here are some of my favorite recipes for banana bread.
More Delicious Gluten-Free Banana Bread Recipes:
- Flourless Chickpea Banana Bread
- Flourless Oatmeal Banana Bread
- Paleo Poppy Seed Almond Banana Bread
- Flourless Chocolate Black Bean Banana Bread
- Double Chocolate Gluten-Free Banana Bread
- Paleo Double Chocolate Banana Bread
Paleo Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 3 large ripe bananas mashed (1 1/2 cups)
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract optional
- 2 Tbsp pure maple syrup
- 2 cups Super Fine Almond Flour*
- 5 Tbsp tapioca flour**
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon optional
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a 9" x 5" loaf pan with parchment paper.
- Pour banana bread batter into the prepared loaf pan and use a spoon or spatula to spread the batter into an even layer.
- Bake for 50 to 55 minutes on the center rack of the preheated oven, until the edges of the bread are golden-brown. Turn off the oven and allow bread to sit in the still-warm oven another 10 minutes.
- Allow bread to cool for 30 minutes before releasing it from the loaf pan and cutting into slices.
- Cut thick slices of bread and enjoy!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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If you only had coconut flour, can that be substituted for the almond flour? If so what would be the substitution ratio?
Thanks!
Hi Megan, You can definitely use coconut flour to make banana bread, but it acts so differently from almond flour that it changes the whole recipe. Here’s a good recipe for coconut flour banana bread: http://summerharms.blogspot.com/2012/02/coconut-flour-banana-bread.html Enjoy!!
Hahah, love the use of “caveman loaf”. Looks great! Love the addition of nutmeg too!
I had no idea people hated the word pamphlet!! I’m actually totally fine with moist but I hate the word melon…even typing it out makes me cringe. I have issues haha
Melon! That’s one I’ve never heard! Yeah, I can see how that would be up there with moist for some people. Too funny!
Bananas-on-their-way-out always make their way into breads ’round these parts, too. Smart lady!
Thanks, Francesca! Let me know if you try the recipe 🙂
I had no idea about the word pamphlet! And I use moist gratuitously…so there. 😛
Yay for banana bread! I love that this is paleo. Means it’s more breakfast-worthy.
I think pamphlet is less of a word issue than moist. But those who hate pamphlet reeeeeeeeally hate pamphlet. Like I’m pretty sure they’d avoid going to museums and such in order to prevent the receipt of an actual pamphlet. Just kidding. But seriously, girl, you’d love this bread! Hope you enjoy!!
I’m not a fan of the word “moist” either, but it’s sort of a necessary evil when you’re describing anything made with almond meal! I don’t know why I expected Paleo baked goods to be dry before I tried them, but I’ve found they are almost always more moist than their traditional counterparts.
Thank you for sharing! I couldn’t find a Paleo banana bread recipe with fewer than, like, five eggs, which is a problem if I also wanted to make it vegan for my non-egg-eating friends. This definitely looks adaptable — and incredibly delicious. 🙂
Ohhhhhmoist…can’t live with it, can’t live without it 😉
I’ve always found paleo foods come out super moist, too, because GF flours absorb less liquid than regular wheat flour. The 5 egg thing? I have no CLUE why people started doing this! It’s beyond me. Yup, you can totally make this bread vegan by replacing the eggs with a couple of flax eggs.
Looks awesome and super moist haha
I adore banana bread so this looks great!
Hell Yamaha, banana bread lovers unite! You’ve gotta try this one! It’s soooo good! I’m drooling right now just thinking about it 😉
I can’t tell you how appealing I find this recipe. This is a mighty fine recipe.
Thanks so much, Carol! It’s so simple and healthy…I’ve been pretty obsessed with the loaf!
Ju, this looks so good, healthy and moist bread! Banana bread is my favourite. Gotta make this one soon!
Glad to hear it appeals to you, Olivia! Let me know when you give it a go!
Hang on, you would choose banana bread over chocolate lava cake?! Girl, you need to get your taste buds checked. Although this does look phenomenal, and as someone who isn’t bothered by the word, I’ll say it looks ultra-moist. I do have some pretty far gone bananas on my counter… this may be in my future!
haha! Yup, Momma done dropped me on my taste buds when I was a kidlet, which made me crave not-so-sweet sweet treats. Let me know if you give the bread a whirl-ski…It’s an excellent place to put them ripe bananas!
Hahaha! Moist pamphlet. I’ve actually never had issue with moist, and I didn’t know people had issues with pamphlet. Other than the spelling. And, I think you meant to write “comforting slice of this MOIST paleo banana bread, because you can get the word MOIST in one. more.time. Oh, and bring me a loaf of this moist bread. If it falls apart, I’ll just eat it with a spoon.
Isn’t the pamphlet thing funny? After writing this post, I was trying to think of other words people take issue with. Damp, phlegm, chunky, curd, etc. etc. Is it because of the word sounds like the meaning itself? What do they call this again? Onomatopoeia? < - That's probably also a word people dislike. Anyhoo, I hope you make the spoon bread.....err...nana bread. It really is marvelously moist 😉
I didn’t know people hated the word pamplet! I don’t like the word slacks.
Anyway, this banana bread sounds wonderful! I love almond meal with bananas – so good!
Ain’t nothing worse than spilling coffee all over your new slacks and pamphlet, because that’s the type of moisture that just lingers. < - meh, it could use some tweaking, but it's a work in progress 😉 Hope you try the banana bread!
Does anyone ever turn their nose up at banana bread? Love this version! It’s a moist (ready rainy) day here on the west coast of Canada . . . a good day to cosy up with some banana bread!
Right? Banana bread is hard to beat. Unless you’re allergic to bananas, in which case: zucchini bread 😉 Hope you’re enjoying the moist fall weather!
Who doesn’t like the word pamphlet? This is news to me. I always thought it was moist and panties….two words you definitely don’t want to use together when writing a food blog, lol.
But I digress. This banana bread is beautimus maximus and I would happily stuff my non-Paleo eating face with it.
LOL, I think this comment goes down in history as one of my favorite comments ever. I may just have to screen shot it and save it in my E-lectronic files for infinity, or until my hard drive gets commandeered by a pack of rabid squirrels, whichever comes first. Thanks for the chuckle 😉
Oh gosh I can’t handle that combination of words – but paleo bread is healthy so I can shove this whole loaf into my gullet, right?
Thankfully moist pamphlets are a rare occurrence…kind of like a unicorn sighting. And yes, sometimes I wish I had a bigger mouth so as to fit a full loaf of bread in my face. But my pant size is thankful this isn’t the case 😉
Lol I really do hate the word moist, but pamphlet doesn’t seem to bother me as much ahha HOWEVER, sometimes “moist” is truly the best word to describe baked goods. Like this bread. Looks..so..moist…
Ever since I started blogging, I’ve been thinking up alternate words to describe something that’s moist in order to make the recipe appealing to those who hate the word. “with wet” “liquid-infused” “shplooosh.” <- There, that's the one. From now on, I shall use the word shplooosh in place of moist 😉 Hope you're enjoying the weekend, Erin!