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-oz) can black beans (1 3/4 cups cooked beans)
- 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
So perfect!
I’m happy you like it, Shawnna!
I made these as mini muffins and they cooked perfectly. Not too gooey. And tasted so good!!!!
I am curious though how you determined there were 10 g of protein per serving, with servings noted as 9 per batch.
Protein comes to approximately 25 g per can of black beans and 11 g for two eggs.
36 grams of protein divided by nine servings is only 4 g of protein per serving, not 10.
Would you please clarify? Making healthy desserts with high protein and low sugar is a goal and I’m not quite sure I’m understanding or if I messed up.
Hi Beth!
I just re-ran the macros in MyFitnessPal, and I’m getting 8 grams of protein per serving (assuming 9 servings). The cocoa powder and the chocolate chips have protein in them (assuming you use chocolate chips that contain dairy, as opposed to dairy-free chocolate chips), which is what I believe accounts for the difference. This said, I’m not sure what I did incorrectly the last time to get 10 grams per serving but I have corrected the nutrition facts in the recipe card. Let me know if you have any other questions! xo
I’m wondering how long to cook for mini muffins. I make a different mini muffin each week for me and toddler. Thanks!
Hi Fianna! A quick google tells me baking mini muffins at 350 for 15 minutes should do the trick 🙂 Let me know if you try it!
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
Love it! Great recipe!