I was craving gluten free banana bread today, and every good craving deserves to be met, don’t you think? Fortunately for me, a reader had recently shared her great-grandmother’s banana bread recipe, and invited me to make it.
She had taken this treasured recipe and converted it to gluten free banana bread just by exchanging my gfJules Flour for the all purpose wheat flour her grandmother had long used. It turned out beautifully!
Knowing that grandma’s recipes are always the best (no matter whose grandmother — that’s just a constant), I was eager to give her recipe a try. I updated grandma’s recipe with a modern tweak here and there (oh yes, and I did make it gluten-free!), but I think you’ll agree that this recipe is a family jewel.
Erin F:
Just pulled GF banana bread out of the oven. It tastes delicious and my home smells wonderful! I completely stopped baking until I found gfJules GF All Purpose flour!!! So grateful for it!
Thanks so much to Erin F. for sharing her family’s recipe. I think we can all agree we are blessed to have this recipe in our gluten free repertoire!
Now, go make grandma proud and bake this wonderful bread for your family! Try mini loaf pans (better for sharing!) or double to make two large loaves. You’re going to want more!
Grandma’s Gluten Free Banana Bread
Grandma's recipes are always best. This old fashioned recipe got a makeover--now it's a treasured gluten free banana bread recipe everyone loves!
Ingredients
- ½ cup (8 Tbs.) butter or non-dairy alternative (I used Earth Balance® Buttery Sticks)
- 3/4 cup - 1 cup granulated sugar (may use less, to taste)
- 2 eggs + 1 egg white (or favorite non-fruit egg substitute)
- ½ cup buttermilk (or ½ cup minus 1 Tbs. non-dairy milk plus 1 Tbs. lemon juice)
- 1/2 cup mashed banana (= approximately 1 banana)
- 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups gfJules™ All-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour (203 grams)
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ cup chopped pecans (optional)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F or 325° F convection.
Oil and lightly flour with gfJules Flour one 8.5 x 4.4 loaf pan and one mini loaf pan or two muffin cups; or use one larger 9 inch loaf pan.
In a medium mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar, whipping until light and fluffy. Add eggs and blend until integrated.
If making non-dairy buttermilk, add 1 tablespoon lemon juice to a liquid measuring cup, then add enough non-dairy milk to total 1/2 cup. Allow the mixture to stand while mashing and measuring the banana.
Mash one large, ripe banana and measure to be sure it equals 1/2 cup, but no more. Add part of another banana if necessary.*
In a separate bowl, whisk together gfJules Flour, salt and baking soda.
Add mashed banana and vanilla extract to the sugar mixture, then add buttermilk alternately with flour mixture and mix well, beating one minute after blended. Stir in nuts, if using.
Pour batter into the loaf pans, filling 2/3 full; add remaining batter to mini loaf pan or muffin tins.
Bake large loaf for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean; bake mini loaf pans 30 minutes; bake muffins 15-20 minutes. The bread will be lightly browned and should spring back to the touch.
Remove to cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then run a butter knife around the inside of the loaf pans and invert gently to remove the bread.
*gfJules’ Note: In quick bread recipes, it’s important not to add too much fruit, as it can make the bread too dense and heavy and can cause it to remain un-cooked in the middle.
I hope you love this recipe as much as we do!
Don’t forget to pin it for later!
First time using this brand flour and first time using any of the recipes. Followed this recipe as written. Not sure what happened , but took it out of the oven put it on a rack to cool & it sunk….sliced it when cooled and wasn’t done inside….not a good way to start Easter breakfast.
Hi Beth, sorry to hear that happened!!! Were you measuring the flour with cups or by weight? The reason I ask is because it’s so important to measure flour properly, and surprisingly most people aren’t doing it the right way! Check out this article on measuring gluten free flour first, and then I’d also look to your oven temperature because a lot of times ovens aren’t calibrated properly either. Fruit breads can be finicky because it’s difficult to tell if they’re done (you can stick a toothpick in a bit of banana instead of the bread part, for example), but getting an oven thermometer is a cheap and easy thing to do for all recipes just as another way to be sure you’re narrowing down variables.
The bottom line is that if the bread sunk and wasn’t done inside, there was either not enough flour or it wasn’t all the way cooked, or both, so those would be the first two things I’d revisit before trying this recipe (or others!) again. Don’t give up though, it’s not hard to get it right and when you do, the rewards are sweet!!!!
~jules
Thank you for your feedback. I weighed the flour so perhaps it’s my oven….I will try an oven thermometer. Thank you.
You would not believe how many peoples’ ovens are off, and it’s a good thing to test anyway. I hope you get it figured out!!! Let me know how it goes!
~jules
Very yummy. Added the walnuts and some Hu chocolate baking gems. Ate the first round with jam, and the second with a quick toast under the broiler slathered with ghee. Loved it toasty with a slight crispy edge.
LOVE it, Anna! I’m a banana bread with walnuts gal, myself, and those Hu baking gems are so good!! The pic says it all – that happy face with that gorgeous gluten free banana bread — made my day for sure! Thanks so much for sharing!!!!
~jules
Hello do u think you could sub grape seed oil for butter? I do use it in zucchini bread.
Hi Maureen, you can use liquid oil here in place of butter, but during the “creaming” step in this recipe, the fats won’t get light and airy when mixed with the sugar, so the texture of the bread will be somewhat different once cooked.
~jules