This recipe came about after trying a piece of banana bread at my local cafe and noticing how absolutely . . . well, not good it was. I stomped home after said bad piece of banana bread, went straight to the notes on my phone (a literal disaster filled with recipe tests, to-do lists from 2015, and restaurants to try), and wrote this recipe.
When making this, I knew I wanted to develop a bakery-style, cakey loaf that makes you feel like you’re eating something a lot more decadent than just a slice of banana bread. Basically, if I showed you a sliding scale with bread on one end and cake on the other, this one would fall more on the cake side of the spectrum. This loaf cake is fluffy and moist (sorry, I know, the m-word) without being too heavy or dense. I honestly feel an excessive amount of joy about this cake because it accomplishes exactly what I intended it to.–Samah Dada
Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted and cooled, plus extra for the loaf pan
- 1 1/2 ripe bananas*
- 2 large eggs
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups almond flour
- 1/2 cup oat flour**
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/3 cup chocolate chips, plus extra for topping
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C) and slick a 9-by 5-inch (23-by 13-cm) loaf pan with coconut oil.
- In a medium bowl, use a fork to mash your bananas.
- In a small bowl, beat the eggs. Add them to the mashed bananas and mix together until smooth. Add the maple syrup and vanilla to the banana mixture and stir to combine.
- Add 1/4 cup coconut oil and stir until incorporated.
- In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the almond flour, oat flour, and baking soda.
- Combine the wet and dry ingredients, being careful not to overmix—just fold together until thoroughly combined.
- Fold in the chocolate chips.
- Pour the batter into the oiled loaf pan. Scatter more chocolate chips on top (we love extra chocolate here, and we love aesthetics).
- Bake until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, 35 to 45 minutes. The middle of the banana bread should be cakey and moist. Let it cool in the pan before removing and slicing.
Notes
*How can I avoid wasting that extra 1/2 banana?
Don’t toss that leftover half a banana. Toss it into a smoothie or mix it with yogurt and granola for a healthy breakfast or easy snack.**Can I make my own oat flour?
You can use rolled oats and process them in a food processor or blender to make the oat flour, but we recommend using store-bought oat flour because it is finer than what we can make at home. If you’re gluten-free, make sure you purchase gluten-free oats/oat flour.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe Testers’ Reviews
Almond flour makes delicious desserts and this gluten-free chocolate chip banana bread is no exception. This recipe creates a moist, slightly dense chocolatey banana bread, and it’s very simply executed. The coconut oil instead of butter in the recipe is a discernible flavor, but I really liked it for a change. I may try it with butter in the next iteration to see if there is any noticeable texture difference. Sometimes almond flour desserts can be quite crumbly, but this banana bread held together well.
I gotta say, this is one of the best gluten-free baked goods that I’ve tried. I don’t need to eat gluten-free but I was going to visit a GF friend so made this to try and take along. I’ve tried several gluten-free cakes and haven’t been impressed. This gluten-free chocolate chip banana bread however was quite good. It’s extremely moist, so much so that you need to slice thick in order to get a slice without it falling apart. But a big thick slice is ok with me. I loved it, my husband loved it, my GF friend loved it, her husband loved it, a hit with all. And very easy to throw together which is an extra bonus.
I would categorize this gluten-free chocolate chip banana bread as more snacking cake than bread. And I might suggest a name change to hint of banana gluten-free chocolate chip snack cake. It has several things going for it…it’s lightly sweet, has great texture, and is wonderfully moist. It doesn’t have an intense banana flavor, but the combination with chocolate chips is still worth the calories. Since the recipe doesn’t specify what condition the bananas should be, choosing extremely ripe, almost black bananas might enhance the banana flavor, but that’s more preference than a requirement. That said, this is a simple recipe to pull together and the results are easily worth the effort.
