Oat flour banana bread is a hearty, delicious healthy banana bread made with just a few simple ingredients! No refined flour (oat flour only), butter, or dairy!
Are you working from home today?
I had a different recipe planned for today. However, in the light of current events, I thought something warm and comforting, like a slice of delicious hearty banana bread, would be more appropriate than what I had planned. (Ain’t nobody care about how to make butternut squash zig-zags right now, right? Exactly.)
Do you know what’s funny? Four years ago, one day, I decided I wanted to make a bread out of just oat flour, but couldn’t find any recipes that didn’t use refined flour or sugar, so I made my own honey oat flour bread.
Since then, I fell in love with baking and cooking with oat flour (see: how to make oat flour and oat flour recipe round-up). It’s the flour I use the most in my kitchen as a binder and for baking. I also love adding oat flour to dessert recipes!
That day I was messing around making my first oat flour recipe creation, I would have never guessed it would become my most popular recipe. So apparently you guys love baking and cooking with oat flour as much as I do.
Soon after, you guys started requesting a savory oat flour bread version so that you could eat oat flour bread as part of sandwiches and toast. Now that recipe is 100% my most popular recipe on the blog.
Over the holidays, you guys requested a pumpkin version, so I made that and happily ate umpteen loaves. Now, I’ve made this oat flour banana bread version five times already and can’t stop won’t stop. The baby loves it for breakfast (even though he hates bananas), and I love it pre/post workout with salted butter. And you can even make oat flour banana muffins out of it as well!
So let’s talk about how to make it!
How to Make Oat Flour Banana Bread
This recipe is a “quick bread” recipe, which means you can’t mess it up, and it’s fast to get it in the oven. The first step is to combine all your dry ingredients, I forgot to take a picture of that, but I think you’ll be okay there. Next, in another bowl, you will want to mash down three large banans (about 1.33 cups of mashed banana.)
TIP: Mash bananas by squeezing them while they are in the peel first. This way, they are easier to mash when you get them in the bowl. I like to leave my mashed bananas just a little bit chunky, but you can use a blender or electric mixer to get rid of the chunks if you want.
Then, add in the rest of your wet ingredients.
Next, add your wet ingredients into your dry and then let the mixture sit for FIVE minutes. The sitting time allows the oats to absorb the liquid before the baking process begins.
Then, you’ll bake in a parchment-lined loaf pan for 50-55 minutes. I chose to use a taller, more narrow pan, if you use a wider shorter loaf pan it might bake faster, so check it at 40-45 minutes. Yes, the top with get crispy, all forms of banana bread do this, including traditional. You are not overbaking it, I promise!
Now! The MOST IMPORTANT information. If you can manage it, leave it alone. The best-case scenario is you let it cool on a cooling rack for a few hours before transferring it to the fridge and allowing it to cool OVERNIGHT in the refrigerator. I KNOW! Trust me, I know, it’s a long hard wait, but worth it.
But this is the best-case scenario, if you follow my directions, you can microwave to reheat slices, and you’ll bread won’t be crumbly at all. If you don’t, it wills till be good, but it might be slightly chewy and a bit crumbly.
This recipe also makes delicious oat flour banana muffins! The recipe is the exact same, but the cooking time is shorter! Get the recipe here.
One more thing before we get to the recipe, let’s talk about the ingredients in case you have more questions.
Oat Flour – I prefer to make my own, but you can also buy it. Make sure it’s ground super fine with a food processor. Get step by step instructions on how to make oat flour in this post.
If you don’t have a food processor, you may want to try my Banana Oatmeal Bread instead!
Original Non-Dairy Milk – Any non-dairy milk will work here, so will water or regular milk.
Bananas – Don’t omit. If you want a different version of this bread, I suggest my pumpkin version, honey oat, or savory versions.
Maple Syrup – You can sub any other liquid sweetener, but of course, it will change the flavor.
Eggs- I have not tried to replace it with flax or chia eggs, but I think it would work just fine.
Salt – do not omit
Baking Soda & Powder – do not omit
Oat Flour Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 3 cups rolled oats (2.75 cups oat flour)
- 3 large bananas
- .25 cup Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Using a food processor grind 3 cups of old fashioned rolled oats into fine oat flour. You want 2.75 cups of oat flour so if you end up short, grind more oats into flour. You want to grind so that your oat flour is very fine. (or you can purchase fine oat flour.)
- In a large bowl, mash bananas with a fork. Then, whisk together maple syrup, eggs, mashed bananas, and unsweetened vanilla almond milk.
- Add cinnamon, salt, baking soda, and baking powder to oat flour. Mix to combine evenly.
- Next, add the wet mixture to the flour mixture and mix until totally combined. The batter will be a little sticky, that's okay.
- Let the mixture sit for five minutes.
- Spray parchment paper with cooking spray and line a loaf pan with parchment paper. The paper will wrinkle, this is the price we pay for easier cleanup!
- Add mixture to your parchment paper lined bread pan and place it on the top rack of the oven.
- Bake for 50-55 minutes until inserted toothpick comes out clean.
- Let cool COMPLETELY. Ideally, let cool for a few hours on the counter, then let cool completely in the fridge overnight. This is so it doesn't crumble, but if you can't wait that long it will still be delicious!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
How can I tell when it’s ready to come out of the oven?
Stick a toothpick in it, it should come out clean!
I’ve made this recipe several times, and it’s my favorite banana bread recipe. It always comes out so good. I use a vitamix to blend the dry ingredients, pour them into a bowl and do the same with wet ingredients before combining. I switch back and forth between honey and syrup. Delicious!!!
So glad you love it!
Hi! I’m so glad I have found this recipe! I would love to try it but first, I have a question. Normal banana recipes call for 1 1/2 to 2 cups of flour, but why does your recipe require 2.25 cups??? I’m very confused and the amount of cups of oats I have to grind is exhausting since I only have a magic bullet blender and it’s not as piwerful as your blender you I have to sift and grind it by hand after to get it as fine as possible. Is there any solutions??? Please reply soon.
Hey Hannah! This recipe will work even with somewhat coarse oat flour, so don’t worry about all the sifting. Oat flour recipes are very different from all-purpose recipes, it’s really like comparing apples to oranges when you look at the amounts of the different types. BTW you can also buy oat flour already made or I make oat flour in my cheapo less than 80 dollar food processor all the time.
so yummy and even better as I added chocolate chips and used and 8 X 8 pan instead of loaf. I love it!
Yum! Sounds kind of like cake style? You might also like my oat flour banana cake recipe then! https://hungryhobby.net/banana-oat-flour-cake/
Can i substitute coconut sugar or honey for maple syrup
I don’t think so, you would need to sub a liquid sweetener.
Sorry! It wasn’t moist and came out more on the dry side, which got worse over the next few days. I tried another recipe that called for less flour and added butter and Greek yogurt to the mix and that came out perfect! If you like it more on the dry, heavier side, this recipe works.
Thanks for your honest review! I specifically kept this bread dairy-free (per reader request – similar to my other oat bread recipes), so that’s why there is no added butter or greek yogurt. The almond milk does a pretty good job at moistening it, but then I add butter on top to mine since I don’t need to be dairy-free! My son eats his with peanut butter warmed up and it’s plenty moist that way. Definitely heating it up helps make a bit moister as well, and keeping it wrapped tightly prevents it from drying out. We really love it in our house, but I’m glad you found a recipe that worked for your house. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the lovely recipe, it was delicious! The whole family loved it and we will be making it often.
I used 4 very ripe bananas and omitted the maple syrup. It came out wonderful and very moist. We ate it instead of bread with peanut mousse spread 😋
Cheers from Vienna/ Austria 🇦🇹
Vivianne
Thank you! That’s so great!
Hey du, wie.viel ist “ .25 cup“ mandelmilch? Was.hast du rein gemacht? Danke im Voraus.:)
.25 cup is 1/4 cup this is an American measurement I’m sorry I don’t know how to convert it (.25 Tasse ist 1/4 Tasse Dies ist eine amerikanische Messung. Es tut mir leid, ich weiß nicht, wie ich sie umrechnen soll)
Thank you so much for replying and translating! This helps a lot! It’s okay, i can simply use cup measure here, i just didn’t understand the sence of the dot that has no number befor it haha i thought.maybe there was a number missing… like 1.25 or something but now i know what it means so i can use it when i make your recipe that i am totally looking forward to because its so healthy and with no unnecessary additives :-))
Greetings from germany
I’m so glad my translation worked! Ha ha Enjoy!
I love this recipe baking it several times. I tried using a nonstick cooking spray rather than the parchment paper and it comes out of the pan perfectly every time after cooling. Thank you very much for making it a keeper in my Pinterest recipes.
Kelli, This looks so good!! I’m vegan so I’ll be using flax egg or even more banana which I tend to do in non vegan recipes that contain banana! Love the oat flour. Gotta try this one soon!
Yum 😋
Enjoy!
Alison, I came to the comments section to search for anyone who may have tried making a vegan version! How did you go with your flax egg? How much flaxmeal and water did you use to make the flax egg? Did the bread rise well? Ive never had luck making banana bread vegan. 🙁
Thank you! xxx
Lara
Hi Lara, my Aunt is lacto vegetarian, so no eggs. She has made this bread several times using the standard flax egg replacement ( mix one tablespoon ground flaxseed meal with three tablespoons of water) Oat flour is denser and less rise than regular banana bread to start with, but she said it tasted great! Also, lots of people in the comments using flax and chia eggs that seem to like it. Of course, everyone has different taste preferences too! But, I hope it works out for you!
Hmmm so I suppose its mostly the oat flour that makes it lack in rise? Do the eggs help to make it rise at all or is the same as using a flax or chia egg? 🙂
Thank you very much for responding so quickly! I am going to bake it on Monday or Tuesday, for my sister in law who just gave birth! 🙂
Do you know what would happen if I put in more flaxseed meal? Just 1/3 cup? Apparently flaxseeds are great for lactation, as are oats. 🙂
Oh… one more question! Do I need to add some sort of acid so that the baking soda reacts?
Yes, oat flour lacks gluten which gives baked goods structure. Eggs do help rise a tiny bit, so you do lose a little bit of that when you use the flax or chia eggs. I would not put in more flax. Flax is very dense and too much with weigh it down. You could slightly increase the baking powder, but you don’t need to do anything else! I have two lactation recipes you could also make her! Lactation cookie (contains one egg): https://hungryhobby.net/chocolate-chip-oatmeal-lactation-cookies/ Lacation bites (no eggs): https://hungryhobby.net/no-bake-lactation-bites/
Very sweet of you to make her something! Any time anyone makes me anything post partum I was SO thankful!
This is a fantastic recipe, thank you. In the UK we buy “oatmeal” which is equivalent to your oat flour, I think. I used agave syrup instead of maple syrup which was fine and just oat milk rather than almond. All of the quantities and cooking time worked out perfectly – I used a setting of 165 degrees C for a fan oven.
(I just cooled to room temperature at the end, with no crumbling issues, for fear of taking a cold cake out of the fridge and having moisture condense on it.)
This will become a new favourite at home.
So good to know about not cooling it! Thanks for the directions in Celcius, I’m sure that will help any of my UK-based readers! 🙂
Mine stayed in the oven for 1 1/2 hours, and it still was to moist in the center, like it wasn’t done all the way through
Weird! I’ve made this a billion times and never had that issue, are you at a high elevation? Maybe that affected it?