This deliciously hearty yet soft and moist Paleo banana bread is made with no grains, dairy, and no added sugar. It’s gluten free, Paleo, sweetened only with bananas and perfect for breakfast or a snack with your favorite spread. Kid approved and easy to make!
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Paleo Banana Bread (Naturally Sweetened & No Added Sugar)
This super moist healthy paleo banana bread is made with almond flour and naturally sweetened with ripe bananas — no added sugar needed!
You can never have too many banana bread recipes, that’s for sure!
There’s the nut-free banana blueberry breakfast bread, almond butter chocolate chunk banana bread, zucchini banana bread, and cinnamon swirl banana bread.
BUT, for whatever reason I always just assumed that to make banana bread truly what I wanted it to be, I had to add some sort of sweetener.
The bananas couldn’t be enough, could they?
Well, as it turns out, banana-only sweetened banana bread can be just as delicious as any bread with added sweetener.
My kids actually had no idea I did anything different with this bread and the two loaves I made were gone within a couple of days.
Making the Most Simple Paleo Banana Bread
As usual, I had a few goals/rules in mind when approaching this bread.
First, no added sweetener besides the bananas. Told you that one already, I know 🙂
Second, no nut butters. I LOVE nut butter and bananas together, and nut butters works really well in paleo breads, doing the job of eggs, oil, and even leavening in my opinion.
But, sometimes we need to let our nut butters rest. Because let’s face it – using 1/2 or 3/4 cup of our precious (and pricy) nut butter on a banana bread isn’t always desirable.
Almond flour is pricy enough, adding nut butters on and the loaf starts to seem…not worth it, perhaps.
For a truly simple banana bread, I used no nut butters and no sweeteners.
Making Paleo Banana Bread with Minimal Ingredients
With this recipe the ingredients are simple.
Way overripe bananas (the softer/browner the better for this one), coconut oil (refined or unrefined) a grain free flour mixture of almond and tapioca, cinnamon, salt, leavening agent.
To get a bit of a better rise on this bread, I used a homemade paleo baking powder made of baking soda and cream of tartar.
However feel free to use regular baking powder if you aren’t concerned with keeping this paleo in the strictest sense.
Super Moist Paleo Banana Bread Without Sugar
Using super ripe bananas is essential for both natural sweetness AND moistness.
Almond flour is also partially responsible for the delicious moistness of this banana bread.
Why This Banana Bread Is So Soft and Tender
The combination of almond flour along with tapioca or arrowroot flour creates a wonderfully soft and tender texture for this bread.
Tapioca or arrowroot gives the bread slightly more elasticity than using almond flour alone. With gluten free and paleo baking, elasticity is something we’re typically missing!
No Fancy Equipment Needed for the Best Banana Bread!
On the topic of rise, make sure you don’t make this bread (or any other quick bread) in a blender or with an electric mixer.
Simply stir the dry ingredients into the wet until you get a lumpy batter with no flour spots.
No need to try to make it smooth – in fact doing so will ensure you get a flat bread.
The bread will have great texture and rise to it if you’re nice and lazy with your mixing!
Ways to Serve This Banana Bread
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toasted with a little almond butter
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as French toast
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as muffins
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with berries
Easy Add-Ins and Toppings for Your Best Paleo Banana Bread
I went totally “naked” with this bread with just the addition of a bit of cinnamon for flavor.
But, feel free to add any of your favorite mix-ins!
A handful or two of chopped nuts, chocolate chips, blueberries, cranberries, or anything else you can think of.
This is a great basic paleo banana bread recipes that’s quite forgiving, versatile, and always delicious!
It’s perfect toasted with a little butter or nut butter (oops, nut butter again) and good totally plain, too.
How to Store Paleo Banana Bread
I recommend storing it loosely covered at room temperature for the first day, and covered in the refrigerator after that.
You can also freeze the loaf and defrost in the refrigerator once reader to eat.
I hope you guys are ready to bake something super easy, tasty and satisfying! Preheat your oven and peel your bananas! Let’s go!
Healthy Paleo Banana Bread {Almond Flour, Sweetened with Bananas Only!}
Ingredients
- 4 small/med very overripe bananas or 3 larger ones, mashed well
- 4 large eggs room temp
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup coconut oil melted and cooled to almost room temp
- 1 3/4 cups blanched almond flour
- 1/2 cup tapioca flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder or make your own paleo baking powder*
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp fine grain sea salt
Instructions
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Whisk together all dry ingredients and set aside. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and line a medium loaf pan with parchment paper.
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In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and mashed bananas, then vanilla and coconut oil until well combined.
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Slowly stir the dry mixture into the wet (don’t use an electric mixer - you will overmix the batter and prevent it from rising properly) just until moistened and no visible flour remains.
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Transfer batter to prepared loaf pan and bake in the preheated oven for 50-60 minutes until deep golden brown and toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Allow to cool completely in the loaf pan resting on a wire rack, then remove using the parchment paper to help you, slice and serve. Enjoy!
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
*To make paleo-friendly (corn free) baking powder, mix 1 tsp baking soda with 2 tsp cream of tartarfollow. For this recipe, you will need just 1/2 tsp total of this mixture.
Nutrition
Want more delicious Paleo quick breads? Try One of These!
Banana Blueberry Breakfast Bread {Nut Free}
Almond Butter Chocolate Chunk Banana Bread
Hearty Cinnamon Raisin Breakfast Bread
Simple Pumpkin Breakfast Bread
Double Chocolate Tahini Banana Muffins
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MIchelle,
Can I substitute arrowroot flower for the tapioca?
Yup that should work just fine 🙂
This is so tasty! And the texture is perfect to soothe my cake cravings. My body doesn’t tolerate tapioca well, so I subbed with sweet rice flour and it came out perfectly. This will be my go-to banana bread recipe from now on. Thank you!
So glad the recipe worked out for you, and very good to know the rice flour worked as well!
Just made this with 5 Thai bananas since they’re so tiny. I didn’t think it would be sweet enough but it’s so good! Will definitely make this again and share the recipe with friends!
So delicious! My family loved it and that made me happy. It is truly the best paleo bread ever! Thank you for sharing this recipe, Michelle.
Yay! So happy to hear you all loved it 🙂
Tried this today and it’s so delicious, truly a guilt-free treat, thanks for the recipe! I only had 1 1/4 cups of almond meal so I substituted the rest with tapioca flour but it still turned out so good! By the way, how long can the banana bread stand at room temperature and also in the chiller?
SO glad it worked out! I usually keep it at room temp for a day before refrigerating.
I made this and it’s just come out from the oven and looks amazing! Can’t wait to slice it to see how it turned out and of course taste it too. Thanks so much for this recipe! My husband and I have only recently decided to go paleo, so this banana bread is a godsend.
I hope you enjoy!
This bread is a game changer – finally a truly no added sugar bread that tastes great! For health reasons, I keep all sugars under 30 g a day. That means no added sugars at all most days. I make some zucchini muffins sweetened with bananas only, but the texture is much moister – not necessarily in a good way.
This bread had a divine texture and just enough sweetness – my taste buds have changed considerably and so this bread is plenty sweet for me. I had it warm with a dollop of almond butter – it was – to use my English sister’s word – gorgeous!
I will be making this as french toast with a bit of NH maple syrup, my splurge meal Christmas morning, when the family is eating traditional cinnamon rolls!
I need to remember using arrowroot flour with Almond flour to get a better texture when baking bread.
I’m thrilled you liked it! I swear by arrowroot or tapioca mixed with almond or coconut flour to get the texture just right. You’ll love the French toast!
Hi! Is it the same ratio. Arrow root or tapioca ??
I am new to paleo baking and have a question! I made this banana bread and also your pumpkin bread last week. I was amazed at how delicious they were..until day 3 when I cut a slice (i had gotten to the middle by then) and it was super sticky. Took a bite and it was almost tasteless but with a weird sticky texture. The banana bread had a very weird taste – kind of bitter. Am I supposed to put this in the fridge or what am I doing wrong? Both the breads seemed to be baked long enough!
I typically only have my bread out at room temp for about 24 hours, then I refrigerate and toast it a bit before serving. I haven’t had the sticky/no flavor issue with refrigeration. A bitter taste isn’t normal so I would get rid of it ASAP and refrigerate next time after the first day.
Thanks for replying! I will try again 🙂
I’m wondering if maybe her baking powder isn’t the culprit. I switched to Argo a while back and have been pleased with the results, though I frequently double on the baking powder + baking soda and add maybe 500mg of ascorbic acid to GF recipes to nudge them into rising a bit better. If Tabitha used an aluminum-based baking powder, that might explain the bitter or metallic taste.
Jeanne has a really good post on baking powders here:
http://www.artofglutenfreebaking.com/2012/11/baking-powder/
It came out amazing!! Thank you for the recipe.