Flourless Oatmeal Banana Bread made oil-free, dairy-free, gluten-free AND refined sugar-free! This healthy banana bread recipe is fun and easy to make using quick oats.
A couple months ago, I posted The Best Gluten-Free Banana Bread Recipe , and you guys ate it up! In fact, it continues to be the third most visited recipe on my site.
One person who made that recipe commented that she used oat flour and it worked for her marvelously.
So that got me thinking.
I have a stockpile of oats, but I don’t typically carry oat flour on hand (can you relate?)… so why not try out the recipe by turning oats into oat flour?
So I rifted off the original recipe and made a few tweaks:
- I replaced the 1 ⅔ cups of gluten-free flour blend with 2 cups of quick oats, turned into oat flour using my blender
- I used MORE banana (a whopping 2 cups of mashed banana instead of the original 1.5 cups, which is about 4 decent-sized ripe bananas).
- Because I was adding more banana, I decided to omit the butter and see what happened. Spoiler alert: it worked like a charm!
If you’ve never made oat flour using quick oats, it’s crazy easy. You simply toss the oats in a blender and blend them on a low / low-medium speed until a substance resembling flour forms. This only takes 10 to 30 seconds!
Plus, it’s totally okay if the blended oats don’t form a super fine flour…I leave mine semi-gritty and it still turns out marvelously!
To bring this thing full circle, this flourless oatmeal banana bread is…
- Naturally gluten-free
- Flourless
- Oil-free and butter-free
- Moist, flavorful, perfectly sweet and cinnamony
- Refined sugar-free
Let’s bake it up!
How to Make Flourless Oatmeal Banana Bread:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a 9” x 5” loaf pan with parchment paper.
Place the oats in a blender and blend on medium speed until a flour forms (this only takes about 20 to 30 seconds. Remember, it is fine if the flour is somewhat gritty).
Transfer the oat flour to a mixing bowl. Add the coconut sugar, baking soda, sea salt and cinnamon and stir together until combined.
Mash the bananas in a separate mixing bowl then whisk in the eggs and vanilla extract.
Stir the dry ingredients into the bowl with the wet ingredients. Add in the lime juice and stir to incorporate.
Transfer the batter to the parchment-lined loaf pan and smooth into an even layer. If desired, sprinkle some whole quick oats on top for looksies.
Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until banana bread has risen substantially and the top appears firm.
Remove from the oven and allow bread to cool at least 30 minutes. Tug on the edges of the parchment paper to lift the loaf out of the pan and place it on a cutting board. Cut thick slices and enjoy!
Recipe Adaptations:
- For an egg-free version, make my Vegan Oatmeal Banana Bread.
- Add ½ cup to ⅔ cup chopped walnuts or pecans to the batter.
- Toss in ½ cup to ⅔ cup chocolate chips or chocolate chunks.
- Whip up a streussel topping for the top of the banana bread.
- If you’re looking for a grain-free banana bread recipe, check out my Paleo Banana Bread using almond flour or my Coconut Flour Banana Bread.
- Replace the coconut sugar with brown sugar.
More Healthy Banana Bread Recipes:
- Paleo Poppy Seed Almond Banana Bread
- Double Chocolate Gluten-Free Banana Bread
- Paleo Strawberry Banana Bread
- Paleo Carrot Cake Banana Bread
- Blender Oat Blueberry Banana Bread
Your oatmeal banana bread adventure starts MEOW!
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 @The.Roasted.Root on Instagram!
Flourless Oatmeal Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups quick oats blended into flour
- 4 large ripe bananas 2 cups, mashed
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup coconut sugar
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp lemon juice or lime juice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a 9” x 5” loaf pan with parchment paper.
- Place the rolled oats in a blender and blend on medium speed until a flour forms (this only takes about 20 to 30 seconds. Remember, it is fine if the flour is somewhat gritty). Transfer the oat flour to a mixing bowl.
- Add the coconut sugar, baking soda, sea salt and cinnamon and stir together until combined.
- Mash the bananas in a separate mixing bowl then whisk in the eggs and vanilla extract.
- Stir the dry ingredients into the bowl with the wet ingredients. Add in the lime juice and stir to incorporate.
- Transfer the batter to the parchment-lined loaf pan and smooth into an even layer. If desired, sprinkle some whole quick oats on top for looksies.
- Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until banana bread has risen substantially and the top appears firm.
- Remove from the oven and allow bread to cool at least 30 minutes. Tug on the edges of the parchment paper to lift the loaf out of the pan and place it on a cutting board. Cut thick slices and enjoy!
Nutrition
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Could I use flax eggs in this recipe instead of real eggs?
Hi Ivana,
I haven’t tested the recipe with flax eggs yet, so I’m not sure. I believe it would work but the bread may turn out very dense…if you’re okay with that, I would say it’s worth the try! xo
If I use oat flour is it doable and if so still 2 cups as the other way 2 cups oats ground up I think would make less flour only cause I already have some oat flour on hand – thank you
Hi Lana,
I haven’t tested the recipe using oat flour yet, but you’re correct – in my experience, 2 cups of oats blended up yields about 1 2/3 to 1 3/4 cups oat flour. I would start with 1 2/3 and add more if the batter looks too liquidy. Hope you enjoy! xo
@Julia, better to give weight measurement in this regard
@Lana @Julia, I make this banana bread every few weeks (it’s THAT good) and I just tried for the first time using oat flour instead of blending oats myself, 1 3/4 cups works, however it needs to bake much longer than 40-45 minutes! I would say if using oat flour, bake 55 minutes to an hour!
That’s amazing, Lauren! I’m so happy you enjoy it! I love how moist and flavorful the bread turns out…definitely a great one to keep on repeat! 😀 xo
Instead of Mashed bananas. What can be substituted?. Would the rest of the ingredients remain the same. I love the recipe Thanks Judy S
Would rolled oats work For this recipe ??
Hi Christina! Yes, rolled oats will work great! Hope you enjoy! xo
Oats are not gluten free. Especially if you have coeliac disease.
They are if they aren’t grown next to wheat. There may be cross-reactivity in those with Celiac, but oats don’t contain gluten by nature unless they are contaminated when grown next to wheat. Oats that are certified gluten-free are grown away from wheat for no gluten contamination.
You are correct, Julia, about oats being gluten-free.
Thanks so much for the feedback and the well-researched information. Seems as though not many people take the time to fact check 😉 xoxoxxo
That’s incorrect. Oats contain their own form of gluten, and a small proportion of coeliacs are susceptible.
The FDA has deemed it too difficult to label oats correctly as being merely wheat-gluten-free, but still containing oat gluten.
Here in Australia, oats that are free of wheat are labelled ‘wheat free’. It’s that simple.
I respectfully disagree, Hayden. In the FDA’s Food Labeling; Gluten-Free Labeling of Foods, Final Regulatory Impact Analysis Regulatory Flexibility Analysis, “ oats themselves are inherently gluten free and can be processed in a way that protects against such cross-contact”. According to this document it is not accurate to state that some people with Celiac react to small amounts of gluten in oats. There is no inherent gluten in oats. The report states less then 9% of people in gf diets “are allergic or intolerant to oats“ – not to gluten in oats. Thanks for listening.
Can you use regular sugar instead of coconut sugar?
Hi Tabitha! Yes, absolutely! You can use either regular cane sugar or brown sugar. Hope you enjoy! xoxoxo
Really enjoyed this banana bread, so light and fluffy, I added some chopped walnuts and it turned out great 👍
Right?! I love that texture. The chopped walnuts sound amazing! xoxo
This bread is so good and I’ve made it several times. The whole fam loves it, thank you! I’m curious to know if I could replace some of the banana with pumpkin, or does it have too much moisture in it?
Hi Chelsea!
I’m so happy you like it! You should be able to replace some of the banana with pumpkin no problem! I think you shouldn’t need to make any changes to compensate for the additional moisture, but if the batter looks too thin, you can add more oats or a few tablespoons of gluten-free flour. Let me know how it works out! xoxo
This is THE best GF recipie I have tried so far! Thankyou SO SO much! My daughter is Gluten intolerant.She LOVED it
I’m so happy to hear you and your daughter enjoy it! Thanks so much for the feedback! xoxo
i’d love to try this recipe but really don’t want to use sugar, honey or maple syrup. is it possible to make this sugar free? thank you!
Hi Lisa! You can leave out the sugar and it will still turn out, it just won’t be as sweet 🙂 Hope you enjoy! xo
I doubled the recipe and put chocolate chips in one of the batches. They didn’t last long in my house. We all loved it.
Great success! I love hearing that! The banana bread always disappears quickly in my home too! xo
This is an amazing banana bread!!! My husband could not detect that it was made with oats instead of regular flour! I followed the recipe, except for the substitution of cane sugar and brown sugar for the coconut sugar. Added walnuts too! The kids love it. This will be a staple in our house. Thank you very much!
My pleasure, Terry! I’m so happy you and your husband enjoy the banana bread! Thanks so much for the sweet note! xo
We added walnuts and chocolate chips, and it turned out great! Thank you!
Ooh, yummy! So thrilled to hear it! xo
This is a great recipe! Thank you! I have a question though. Why omit the oil? I like adding fats to my goodies. Do you think a little coconut oil or butter would make it too heavy? I will give it a go the next time I attempt the recipe. Maybe a little less banana and some oil instead. I used an allulose/monk fruit blend instead of sugar and it was superb!
Thanks so much for sharing your experience, Angela! The only reason I don’t add oil is because some folks try to keep the fat content low when the carb content is high. I personally love a decent amount of moisture and fat in my baked goods, so I love your train of thought 🙂 Definitely feel free to add 2 to 4 tablespoons of melted coconut oil, butter, or avocado oil the next time you make the bread! xo
Just started bring gluten free and this was amazing. I didn’t have coconut sugar so I used 1/3 cup honey and added 1/2 cup gluten free chocolate chips. SO GOOD!!
Wahoo! I’m thrilled to hear it, Karen! Thanks so much for sharing your experience! xo
Hi! This looks so good, I really want to try it! My question is if I can sub the coconut sugar with maple syrup without messing it up lol
Hi Lauren! I haven’t tested the recipe using pure maple syrup instead of coconut sugar so I’m not sure how it would turn out. I imagine adding a little additional oats (say 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup) would help offset the addition of liquid. Let me know if you try it!