Chocolate Chip Coconut Flour Banana Bread

Breakfast

January 22, 2015 By Brittany Mullins 39 Comments

This coconut flour banana bread can be mixed together all in one bowl with 10 simple ingredients. It’s sweetened only with bananas, but still deliciously sweet!

I’ve been eating gluten-free for a few months now and it’s getting easier every day. Of course there are a few foods that I miss, but it hasn’t been too hard to find substitutes for almost everything. Earlier this month I still had a few things left on my list, including a good gluten-free naan (or flat-bread) recipe and a healthy and tasty gluten-free banana bread recipe.

I’m still working on the naan, but I’m crossing banana bread off the list with this coconut flour banana bread recipe!

Holy moly, this bread is SO good. Maybe even better than my best banana bread recipe?!? For what it’s worth, all of my taste testers (even those that aren’t gluten-free) agreed that this bread is straight up delicious.

HOW TO MAKE COCONUT FLOUR BANANA BREAD VIDEO:

And this banana bread recipe is not only gluten-free, but it’s also grain-free, dairy-free and paleo. It’s flavorful and moist with a semi-crisp exterior and it’s easy to cut without being overly crumbly and falling apart.

What is Coconut Flour?

Coconut flour is a naturally gluten-free flour made from dried coconut meat that has been ground. It’s unsweetened, although the natural sugars in the coconut give coconut flour a mildly sweet flavor. Coconut flour contains more fiber than any other flour, making it especially filling. The high amount of fiber also makes coconut flour super absorbent so when using it for baking you typically can’t use it as a 1:1 sub for all-purpose flour or even almond flour.

Tips for Baking With Coconut Flour

In most baking recipes you can not use coconut flour as a a 1:1 sub for all-purpose! You’ll usually want to start with 1/4 or 1/3 cup coconut flour to replace 1 cup of all-purpose flour. You might also need to increase the liquid in your recipe and the amount of eggs. In most coconut flour recipes you’ll see a large amount of eggs used. Eggs provide extra moisture while also helping baked goods made with coconut flour bind together and rise.
When measuring coconut flour, I recommend scooping it with a spoon into your measuring cup and leveling it off with a knife rather than dipping it into the bag of flour and packing it down. You can also use a food scale to get a more precise measurement.
Unless you’re a recipe developer and have time and money to spend on ingredients for testing, I don’t recommend trying to convert recipes that use all-purpose or wheat flour on your own. It can take a lot of trial and error. I recommend finding well tested recipes and using those!

Using Coconut Oil Instead of Butter

To keep this banana bread moist (and load it with healthy fats) I used almond butter coconut oil. I used Vita Coco’s 100% raw, organic cold-pressed coconut oil and it worked like a charm in this recipe.

The Vita Coco coconut oil is unrefined so it has a great coconut smell and flavor. If you’re looking to use coconut oil but don’t want the coconut flavor, you’ll need to purchase refined coconut oil. In general coconut oil works wonderfully for baking (it’s a great sub for butter), but I also like using it for roasting veggies, stir-fry, cooking eggs, pancakes and more. Basically anything that most people use butter for, I use coconut oil.

We’ve been eating this banana bread for breakfast, as a snack or as an after-dinner dessert. Isaac loves it warm (I pop it in the toaster oven for a few minutes to reheat), but I think it’s delicious at room temperature. I like that it’s portable as well — just last week I cut off a big chunk of the loaf and took it with me as a travel snack. Honestly, I was trying to save a slice to share with my friend, but I ended up eating it all while on the plane. Oops!

If you try this coconut flour banana bread recipe I’d love for you to leave a comment and star rating below letting me know how it turned out. Your feedback is super helpful for the EBF team and other readers.