Banana Bread (AIP/Paleo)

This banana bread is the real deal! Not only is it moist and delicious, but it’s also completely AIP, paleo, gluten, dairy, and egg free!

The other day I had some extra ripe bananas and a hankering for banana bread. So of course, I had to a do a little experimenting! And not to toot my own horn or anything but seriously, it turned out AMAZING!

Now it didn’t take much for me to arrive at this recipe, since all I did was tweak my original raisin cake. I’ve made so many different variations of this cake now, in the form or pumpkin spice bread, fruit cake, zucchini bread, and now this deeelicious banana bread!!!

Why I love this banana bread!

Easy to make

It may seem like there’s a lot of ingredients but I promise, it is super simple to make!

All you need to do is whisk the dry ingredients, then mix the wet ingredients and then mix the two together! Ok maybe there’s a little bit of banana mashing but still easy 😉

The gelatin gets mixed in with the dry ingredients, no need to mess with gelatin eggs or any eggs for that matter!

Feels like baking

So I love baking, for some reason I find it calms me. And when I first started this AIP journey I was disappointed that baking wasn’t going to be a part of my life for awhile.

But you know, baking can happen on AIP. And this recipe is one that proves that. Making this banana bread will allow you to feel like you’re truly baking, even if it’s with different flours 🙂

Uses up ripe bananas

There’s always those last few bananas that get too ripe but aren’t too ripe to throw out, you know the ones you leave sitting on the counter forever not knowing what to do with them? Well this recipe is perfect for them, it uses three ripe bananas!

You may also like this recipe for banana muffins, which also uses up ripe bananas!

Optional add-ins

I love this banana bread just the way it is BUT you can easily shake things up a bit and throw in some add-ins!

AIP add-ins:

  • Carob chips
  • Shredded coconut
  • Raisins
  • Dried cranberries
  • Orange zest

Some other add-in ideas:

  • Chocolate chips (enjoy life are my fave)
  • Nuts – walnuts specifically would be great!

What to have it with

I love having a slice of this banana bread with a warm drink, roasted dandelion root tea is a fave! It would also be great with any one of these:

Banana Bread (AIP/Paleo)

Yield: 12 servings

Banana Bread (AIP/Paleo)

Prep Time:
10 minutes
Cook Time:
1 hour 20 minutes
Additional Time:
15 minutes
Total Time:
1 hour 45 minutes

This banana bread is the real deal! Not only is it moist and delicious, but it's also completely AIP, paleo, gluten, dairy, and egg free!


Ingredients

Dry Ingredients

Wet Ingredients

  • 3 med ripe bananas
  • 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup
  • 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
  • 2 tsp apple cider vinegar

Instructions

    1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
    2. Line a 9x5x3 loaf pan with parchment paper, set aside.
    3. In a large bowl whisk together the dry ingredients. Set aside.
    4. In a separate large mixing bowl mash the bananas. Add in the remaining wet ingredients and mix.
    5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until combined.
    6. Add batter to parchment-lined loaf pan. Spread the batter so it fills the loaf pan and the top is even.
    7. Bake in centre of preheated oven for 1h20 minutes or until a knife inserted into centre of loaf comes out clean.
    8. Allow to cool.
    9. Slice and enjoy!

47 Comments

  1. 1/2 cup, tbsp., tsp. arrowroot flour/ starch?. I assume it is cup.

    • Yes you’re right, 1/2 cup of arrowroot flour/starch! Thank you for pointing this out, I just updated the recipe 🙂

  2. How much arrow root?

  3. I’m making this at the moment and the cake batter is thick like a dough form is this right!?

  4. So I really want to make this (love your pumpkin bread) but I’m trying to make do with what I have so it’s not going to be AIP. Can I sub 2 eggs for the gelatin? And sub the arrowroot with the same amount of tapioca flour? And btw….thanks for being so creative in the kitchen! My sweet tooth often gets the best of me and it’s great to know I can fall back on your recipes.

  5. So I made this last night according to the recipe except I used 2 eggs instead of the gelatin, and cooked it an additional 10 – 15 minutes. Let me just say now that it’s almost gone. We were idiots and didn’t let it cool, so we ate piping hot banana bread that was very squishy but OMG THE FLAVOR was off the charts. Today, it’s very, very moist (but not squishy) and did I say the flavor is INCREDIBLE? Sweet but not cloying, with a lush and velvety mouth feel. I think there are a few bites left. Once gluten-free folks know about this recipe, they’ll never miss the old stuff. I just worry that I can’t stop eating it, I hope you can control yourself better than I did! Thanks again Rebecca for another great one!

    • “We were idiots and didn’t let it cool, so we ate piping hot banana bread” – LOL been there! SO happy it was enjoyed! And thank you for commenting, sure made my day! 😀

  6. Do you think palm oil could be substituted for coconut oil? Thank you!

  7. This comes together to quickly! I love making this recipe into muffins for portion control on my part. I have forgotten the gelatin one time and then apple cider vinegar another time and they always turn out great! I love to add blueberries!

    • Oh that is so nice to hear! So happy you’re enjoying the recipe. Love the idea of making it into muffins!

      • Suggestion as to how long to bake these as muffins? I followed the recipe exactly and made muffins but they are gooey in the middle. Eventually the outside gets overdone if I leave them too long. Not sure what went wrong:(

        • I have not made this recipe into muffins, however I would suggest around 30 minutes. They shouldn’t be gooey inside tho – I know cassava can sometimes have that effect which is unfortunate. I do wonder if it depends on the brand of cassava flour…

          I do have a recipe specifically for banana muffins (one of my most popular recipes) and I’ve had several readers who have substituted the banana flour for cassava flour with success! Hope this helps 🙂

  8. The batter doesn’t look right, just look dry and thick I can hardly whisk it it’s so thick.

    • Hi Denise,

      The batter is definitely thicker than a regular cake/bread recipe, however you should still be able to mix it. Hope it still turned out for you. Next time if you find it too thick, you may want to add a bit extra wet ingredients, either banana, coconut oil, or applesauce just enough so you’ll able to mix it well. Hope this helps!

  9. Hi, do you think I can replace the apple sauce with something else? More banana perhaps? Sounds yummy! Thanks!

  10. made this exact and the inside will not cook? the texture is like the glue they use to stick samples into magazines? hoping it changes when it cools but not looking good

    • Eek that does not sound good! Were there any changes to the ingredients? I’m thinking it needs longer in the oven but I’m also wondering if its the type of cassava four that was used… As cassava on it’s own can have that gooey effect.

    • Mine did this too! I used Tapioca flour is that what the problem would have been?

  11. Hi! I want to make this but I have a coconut allergy. What can I sub for the coconut flour? Thanks!

  12. Hi! I don’t want to use eggs *or* gelatin — can I sub extra applesauce? More bananas? What would you recommend?

    • hmm well the texture will be different and can’t guarantee it will work, but I would just try omitting the gelatin all together.

  13. Can you use fish gelatin instead? Also, is there an alternative we can use if we can’t have apple cider vinegar?

    • I don’t see why fish gelatin wouldn’t work – should have the same effect. You can use regular vinegar (if tolerated) in place of the acv – but you could probably just omit it as well – applesauce should be acidic enough to activate the baking soda! Hope this helps 🙂

  14. Just made this recipe as is and the outside is cooked but the inside seems raw. I even left it in the oven longer but cannot seem to get the inside to cook. Any thoughts?

    • hmm the inside should definitely not be raw. It will be moist but not raw. Was your batter thick or runny? The batter should be thick when going into the pan. You could try slicing and baking individual slices. Hope this helps!

  15. Can tigernut flour be used in place of cassava flour?
    I just made your zucchini bread recipe with tigernut flour today. My family loves it!

    • It should work – may change the texture somewhat tho. I would try using 3/4 cup tigernut flour instead of the 1 cup cassava (just like the zucchini bread calls for). Hope this helps and SO glad the fam enjoyed the zucchini bread 🙂

  16. Can I use all cassava flour? How much would I use?

  17. Hi Rebecca! I just made this recipe and struggled with the gooey center like some others. It is a shame because the flavor is AMAZING. I’m wondering if my bananas were not medium sized enough and added too much moisture, making the cassava gooey. Would it be possible to add volume or weight measurements for the amount of mashed bananas you typically use in this recipe? Thanks!

  18. Tay Kratzer

    I followed the recipe to a “T”. It definitely felt like a dough rather than a batter. I was. Afraid when I made it that it was going to just be a brick. I warned my wife that it may not be good. My wife LOVED IT! It had crispy edges which she also loved. Thank you so much. I now have a go-to recipe to brighten my wife’s day.

  19. Would flaxmeal or psyllium husks work instead of using gelatin?

  20. OMG, this is a great bread! I converted the cups to gram since I have had much better luck with that and omitted the gelatin and added a tablespoon of psyllium husks. I didn’t have applesauce and used all bananas. I added way more cinnamon, a bit of clove and cardamom and a handful of raisins. I also cooked it for 1.5 hours+/-. It looked and smelled amazing when it was done.

    I sliced it into 1″ wedges and toasted it dry in my cast iron skillet. Delicious, thank you!!!

  21. I’m eating the last few slices of this amazing bread. I plan to make it again as I did in my previous post. this time I plan to use mashed fresh apricots in instead of bananas and applesauce.

  22. Anonymous

    I apologise in advance but this recipe didn’t work for me at all and the loaf came out like a brick! A complete waste of money as I used Otto’s cassava flour which is so expensive.

    • Oh no, it definitely shouldn’t come out like a brick at all. SO sorry that is very frustrating when AIP baking does not turn out.

  23. I’ve been finding it really hard to find AIP sweet treats that don’t make me miss ingredients I’m temporarily excluding but thought I’d give this a go because it looked good, had good reviews and seemed relatively simple (I don’t get a lot of free time for baking). Genuinely my new favourite thing! I actually think I prefer this to the normal banana bread I make. I’m looking forward to making this again, maybe after the reintroduction stage of my AIP diet, with chocolate chips 🙂
    I did cook it for a bit less as by 60 minutes it was starting to go a darker brown at the edges and I think I caught it at the perfect point.

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