Flourless Chocolate Black Bean Banana Bread made with everyone’s favorite magical fruit! Naturally sweetened, gluten-free, grain-free, moist and fluffy!
If you’ve been following along my site for a number of years, you may be familiar with my classic bean-infused dessert recipes. Just take for instance, my Black Bean Brownies, Vegan Garbanzo Bean Blondies, Dark Chocolate Chickpea Brownies or my Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Chickpea Bars. My mouth is watering just typing the words.
Suffice it to say, we are not strangers to treats made with the magical fruit.
I had it in my head for many moons to develop a Black Bean Banana Bread recipe, and finally got around to actioning it. The end result? Ultra moist, fluffy, AMAZING chocolate-y rich banana bread that you’d never in a zillion years guess is made with black beans.
Because I have a ton of dry black beans in my pantry, I cooked a big batch and used 1 and ¾ cup in this recipe. You can easily use a 15-ounce can of black beans (or garbanzo beans) instead!
My favorite part about this black bean banana bread, aside from the fact that it’s a melt-in-your-face depiction of wildly delicious dreams, is that the batter comes together in seconds in the blender. It’s just so easy to prepare!
Some Recipe Highlights:
- Gluten-Free
- Flourless
- Refined Sugar-Free
- Grain-Free
- Chocolatey, moist, rich, delicious!
How about we cut right to it??
How to Make Chocolate Black Bean Banana Bread:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a 9” x 5” loaf pan with parchment paper.
Drain and rinse the black beans of any liquid and pat them dry with a paper towel (they don’t need to be perfectly dry, just not overly saturated). Whether you’re using a can of black beans or beans that you cooked from dry, simply dump them into a colander and rinse with cold water in the sink, then give them a once over with a paper towel.
Transfer the black beans to a blender along with the rest of the ingredients (except chocolate chips) and blend until smooth.
If adding chocolate chips, stir them into the batter.
Transfer the batter to the parchment-lined loaf pan and bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until the bread feels firm when gently poked in the center.
Allow bread to cool at least 30 minutes before slicing and serving.
Recipe Adaptations:
- Use garbanzo beans instead of black beans.
- Add 1 to 2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract if desired.
- If you have instant espresso or instant coffee, add 1 tablespoon! It makes the bread richer in flavor.
- Replace the coconut sugar with granulated cane sugar or brown sugar.
- Add white chocolate chips, peanut butter chips or butterscotch chips to change up the flavor.
- Although I suspect you can replace the chicken eggs with flax “eggs” to make the recipe vegan, I haven’t had a chance to test it yet. If you try it, please leave a comment and let us know how it works out!
- Sprinkle bread with unsweetened shredded coconut if desired.
- Add ⅔ cup chopped walnuts or pecans for nutty texture.
Can I Use Dry Black Beans Instead of Canned?:
Yes! In fact, that’s what I did. Simply cook a batch of dry black beans and measure out 1 ¾ cups. I make my Instant Pot Black Beans using just black beans and water (omitting the oil, onion, jalapeno, seasonings, etc).
More Delicious Gluten-Free Quick Bread Recipes:
- The Best Gluten-Free Banana Bread Recipe
- Paleo Double Chocolate Banana Bread
- Carrot Cake Banana Bread
- Paleo Cranberry Orange Bread
- Paleo Morning Glory Quick Bread
Get your bean bread on!
My cookbook, Paleo Power Bowls, is now available! CLICK HERE to check it out. Thank you for your support!
If you make this recipe, please feel free to share a photo and tag me at @The.Roasted.Root on Instagram!
Flourless Black Bean Banana Bread
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 large ripe bananas peeled
- 2 large eggs
- 1 15-ounce can black beans, 1 3/4 cups
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1/3 cup coconut sugar
- 1 tsp vinegar or lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 3/4 cup chocolate chips optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a 9” x 5” loaf pan with parchment paper.
- Drain and rinse the black beans of any liquid and pat them dry with a paper towel (they don’t need to be perfectly dry, just not overly saturated).
- Transfer the black beans to a blender along with the rest of the ingredients (except chocolate chips) and blend until smooth. If adding chocolate chips, stir them into the batter.
- Transfer the batter to the parchment-lined loaf pan and bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until the bread feels firm when gently poked in the center. If the top of the bread appears as though it's getting too dark, you can cover the loaf pan with aluminum foil at any point. A great way of testing whether or not bread is cooked through is by taking its internal temperature using a digital thermometer. To do so, insert a thermometer into the center of the bread. If it is 190 degrees or higher, it is fully cooked!
- Allow bread to cool at least 30 minutes before slicing and serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Oh my Lord!!! If only I had bananas. But when I get some bananas, I will make this. I am humble in your presence, your Majesty….
I will check out the other “magic fruit” recipes. And thank you so very much for all your hard word I know you do.
LOL thanks so much, m’dear! I hope you love all the magical fruit treats 😀 Thanks for your sweet comment! xoxo
Being plant-based, I’m wondering if this will be good if I use flax eggs instead of chicken eggs!
Hi Janet! I think it’s worth a shot but my gut feeling is that it will turn out super dense. I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, but if you’re going for fluffy, I don’t think that will happen using flax eggs. Let me know if you try it!! xoxox 😀
@Julia, I tried to make this recipe plant-based myself. I guessed that the eggs were important for protein structure, so I replaced with 2 tbsp chickpea flour mixed with 6 tbsp of water. I greased and floured a muffin pan (1 dozen) and filled each halfway, then baked at 350 for 25 minutes. They are light and fudgy, a lot like store-bought brownie bites. Delicious! I haven’t tested, but I think this would work also in a bread pan with a longer bake to be more bread-like. Thanks!
This is genius, Shane! Thank you for sharing! xo
Just made this, soooooo good. Hubby has already had two large pieces, will probably be gone by tomorrow. Made sure he had a low cal lunch.
Do you think instead of whole black beans I can use black bean flour?
Hi Mark,
Ooh, I wish I had an easy answer. My gut feeling is that you’d need to change other aspects of the recipe in addition to swapping the beans with flour, but I’m not positive. I suppose you could re-constitute the flour first by adding a little water to it and stirring it until it’s thick and creamy…but I truthfully have very little experience with black bean flour, so I can’t be sure how it would all work out. Let me know if you give it a whirl! xo
Delicious and couldn’t be easier to make! Thank you for such a great recipe!
I’m so happy you like it, Megan! Thanks for the sweet note! xo
Can I switch the added sugar for a third banana?
I’m curious about this as well. I’ve had banana brownies without adding any sweetener and I thought the bananas plus the chocolate chips (used semi-sweet) made them sweet enough but I’m not sure if adding beans will change that equation.
Hi Emily,
I think it will work if you add 2 to 3 tablespoons of flour to offset the moisture from the additional banana. Without adding something to offset it, the bread will likely be too moist to bake through and my guess is it won’t hold together well. Try adding either oat flour, rice flour or gluten-free all-purpose flour. I’d personally go with a GF blend. Let me know how it turns out! xoxo
Hi Pranisha,
I haven’t tested the recipe swapping the sugar for banana, but I imagine it would work as long as you add a couple tablespoons of flour, like oat flour, rice flour, or gluten-free flour blend. I think without adding flour, the bread will be too moist. Let me know if you try it! xoxo
Can these be baked as muffins? What would the temperature and timing be?
Hi Amber!
I would do 350 for 18 to 25 minutes. I haven’t tested the recipe as muffins, but that should get you to where you need to be. xox
Can I leave out the lemon juice, vinegar and sea salt?
Hi Linda,
You can, but the acid reacts with the leavening agent and the sea salt enhances the flavor. They will still turn out great, though! xo
Julia I think your site is my new favorite playground. I’ve made the Blondies, black bean pumpkin brownies and this banana bread. I love them all. I made the wise decision to add instant espresso powder and espresso chips to banana bread and guess what? Delicious and didn’t have to share with the kids as they don’t like coffee:). I did share with my neighbor! 😊
That’s so great to hear! Thank you for the sweet words and feedback, Karmen! Love that you added espresso chips – that sounds amazing! xoxox
can regular granulated sugar be used?
Hi Sue! Yes, absolutely! Simply replace the coconut sugar with 1/3 cup of regular cane sugar. Hope you enjoy!
Hello! I just made this and it’s so good. How do you recommend storing this?
Hi Jennifer! I cover it with plastic wrap and store it on the counter for up to 3 days. Any amount of time after that, I move it to the refrigerator or the freezer. If you keep it in the refrigerator, put it in an airtight container so that it doesn’t dry out, and for the freezer, wrap it in plastic wrap, then store it to a zip lock bag. So happy you enjoy the recipe! xo
I used carob powder and no sweetener. It is great!
Wahoo! I’m so thrilled to hear it! Thanks so much for reporting back, Melissa! xo
I don’t have a blender anymore. Will mashing the beans work then using a mixer? Thanks.
Hi Jo!
I think it may take a lot of work to mash the beans, but you’re welcome to try it if you’re willing to put in the elbow grease! The beans become very creamy and smooth when blended in the blender with the other batter ingredients. I would hate for you to go through the trouble of mashing the beans only to have the bread not turn out, but if you’re okay with experimenting, it could work great. Let me know if you try it. xoxo
This recipe is delicious. I don’t know if I could detect the “beans” unless I was aware. So yummy! Making it for he second time tonight. Very moist cake and the only complaint would be that I ate way too much..in one serving..
I’m happy to hear you enjoy the banana bread, Annika! I don’t taste the beans either – it just tastes nice and sweet to me! Thrilled you like the recipe and thanks so much for sharing your experience!
I think I did something wrong? I don’t have a blender so I mashed the beans and bananas with a fork to the best of my ability. The loaf has a ton of moisture but it’s collapsing in on itself and is super mushy. Not sure if it’s might fault or the recipe. Any suggestions?
Hi there! My apologies the recipe didn’t work out for you. When blended, black beans are great at binding, which is why they can take the place of flour in certain recipes. Without thoroughly blending the beans, I can see why the recipe wouldn’t work. I haven’t tried using your method of mashing the beans and bananas, so I can’t speak to whether or not this was the root cause but my suspicion is that it is. If you have a food processor, a food processor would work too. The goal is to end up with a completely smooth batter. I hope this helps!
I have made this a couple of times and LOVE it!!
Super chocolat-y and delicious!!!
I’ve been wanting to try them as cookies 😛
Wish me luck 🙂
Yaay, I’m happy you enjoy it, Ameena!! I actually have a cookie recipe that’s a similar concept! If you’d like to try it, you can find it here: https://www.theroastedroot.net/double-chocolate-vegan-black-bean-cookies/ Happy baking!
Love it! Great recipe!
Hi I made the recipe and added the vanilla and instant coffee. I did use the blender and had a nice smooth batter. However when I cooked it it was not done at 40 min. Cooked another 10 minutes and seemed done. It did not slice well. Was more like a bread pudding. But it was delicious.
Hi Donna! Thank you for sharing your feedback! I’ll have to re-test the recipe and make any necessary changes. I appreciate you bringing this to my attention! xo