Oatmeal Banana Nut Bread ~ Easy Gluten Free Recipe (2024)

By Robin Gagnon | Updated on

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This Oatmeal Banana Nut Bread is a gluten-free recipe, but is made entirely with common ingredients found in most kitchens. So many gluten-free dessert recipes have a daunting list of ingredients that are often expensive and difficult to find. With the holidays coming up, I thought an easy gluten-free dessert that used standard pantry items would be helpful to many readers.

I often use ground oatmeal in my baked goods, but usually in conjunction with another flour. This time, as I was about to add some brown rice flour, I thought about how few of my readers have this on-hand, and how it didn't really seem to improve most of the baked goods I have used it in. I'd been curious about how the results of going with straight oat flour would be, and I was about to find out.

The result was incredibly moist and damn delicious! Forget the gluten-free flour, and just grind old fashioned oats in your food processor.

Oats are actually quite flexible for use in gluten free recipes. Oatmeal pizza crustor Oatmeal Blueberry Pancakes are great examples.

If gluten is not a concern, try my banana date nut bread or banana oatmeal cookies.

Oatmeal Banana Nut Bread ~ Easy Gluten Free Recipe (3)

Oatmeal Banana Nut Bread ~ Easy Gluten Free Recipe

Oatmeal Banana bread is an easy recipe for gluten-free dessert, using common ingredients.

4.81 from 21 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: gluten-free, Healthy

Prep Time: 12 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour hour

Calories:

Author: Robin Gagnon

Ingredients

  • 2 cups old fashioned oats* (1 ⅔ cups oat flour)
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon Kosher salt
  • ½ teaspoon cinnamon
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 ripe bananas mashed, approx. ¾ cup
  • ½ cup applesauce
  • ½ cup low fat buttermilk
  • 2 tbs butter melted
  • 2 tbs. canola or olive oil
  • ¾ cup light brown sugar
  • 2 tbs. honey
  • ¾ to 1 cup chopped walnuts I like it with a cup, but that is probably a little too nutty for many people

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

  • Pulse the oatmeal in food processor until consistency of flour.

  • Add the baking soda, salt and cinnamon, and pulse to mix.

  • Beat eggs in a large mixing bowl. Add vanilla, bananas, apple sauce, buttermilk, butter, oil, brown sugar and honey. Mix well.

  • Add the oat flour mixture to the bowl and mix thoroughly.

  • Fold in the nuts, until evenly distributed.

  • Coat loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray, and pour batter in.

  • Bake approximately 1 hour. Outside will start to brown up, but it will stay moist.

Notes

For those particularly sensitive to gluten, make certain your oats are certified gluten-free. Most are grown and processed in the vicinity of wheat.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Donna says

    That looks divine! I love banana nut bread, and oatmeal raisin cookies, so I'm sure I'd love this!

    Reply

  2. TerriAnn @ Cookies and Clogs says

    I love banana nut bread! Add in oatmeal and moist yumminess and I'm in! Thanks for the recipe.

    Reply

    • Maria says

      Hi! Can I substitute the buttermilk with almond milk and some vinagre?

      Reply

      • Robin Gagnon says

        I haven't tried it, but I don't foresee an issue in this recipe.

        Reply

      • Shanan says

        Hi Maria, I always use almond milk with this recipe and it’s divine!

        Reply

  3. Robin says

    Bananas give me wicked heartburn, but that would never stop me from eating something so delicious looking!!

    Reply

  4. Liz @ A Nut in a Nutshell says

    I'm so glad you mentioned that about all the intimidating ingredients. Thanks for the workaround with that!

    Reply

  5. HilLesha says

    This looks really good! 🙂

    Reply

  6. Marcie W. says

    Can old fashioned oats be subbed quick oats?

    I love that this bread is GF and since I love a lot of nuts as well, I'm going to use the amount that you did. YUM!!

    Reply

    • Robin Gagnon says

      I never have quick oats in the house, so I really couldn't tell you.

      Reply

    • Shanan says

      Hi Marcie, I always use old fashioned oats with mine and it’s fantastic!

      Reply

  7. Yum Girl says

    That looks fantastic! If I may, I’d like to invite you to submit your photos to the new YumGoggle, a photo sharing site with the philosophy that if you worked hard to cook it and photograph it, we should show it off! Hope to see you there soon!
    http://www.yumgoggle.com/gallery/

    Reply

  8. Karen says

    This looks very good. I'm bookmarking it so I can make it next time I have bananas in the house.

    Reply

  9. Danielle says

    Just so you know, old fashioned oats and quick oats are NOT gluten free! They are often grown in rotation with wheat, processed in the same facilities, on the same machines and transported in the same trucks. If you are GF for health reasons, do NOT use old fashion oats unless you have found a certified gluten free product!

    Reply

    • Robin Gagnon says

      While oats contaminated with wheat are common, most of my gluten-free friends eat them. It is a good point though, that if cooking for a guest who is GF labels should be carefully checked for compliance.

      Reply

    • Bonnie says

      Just to let you know, Bob's Red Mill makes gluten free old fashioned oats.

      Reply

      • Robin Gagnon says

        They offer GF quick oats as well.

        Reply

  10. Doreen says

    I made this recipe and was wondering if it can be frozen?

    Reply

    • Robin Gagnon says

      I don't see any reason why not. It doesn't last long enough around my house to find out though.

      Reply

  11. Emily says

    I have old fashioned oats but nothing to grind them with! However I have almond flour almond meal and coconut flour would any of these work? (Gf is all new to me and I've never really baked....like ever haha....help)

    Reply

    • Robin Gagnon says

      Ground oats, almond flour and especially coconut flour all have very different properties & are not easily substituted for each other. Oats are easily ground in a food processor or even a blender. Just one note though, if you are doing a GF diet due to a significant allergy, make sure your oats are certified gluten free. Most are processed in plants that also process wheat, and the two get a little intermingled, so they may not be fully gluten-free.

      Reply

  12. Deb says

    I made this today and they are delicious. I made a couple of changes. I used Almond Milk instead of buttermilk and date syrup instead of honey. I baked it in muffing tins, it yielded 12 muffins. Baking time was 25 minutes in a preheated oven 350'. I put it into my diet organizer and the calorie count is 235 per muffin (I used .5 cup of nuts). I also froze 8 of the 12 since I live alone.

    Reply

    • Robin Gagnon says

      Thank you very much for sharing the changes you made, along with muffin cooking time. I am certain this will come in handy for another reader.

      Reply

  13. Runningpups says

    Wow, is that good!!! Especially warm . . . Not too sweet, wonderful texture, great way to use frozen over-ripe bananas and leftover buttermilk.

    Reply

  14. Reenie says

    This is a terrific recipe. Made 12 muffins instead of a loaf and they came out great!!! Cut the sugar down and they tasted fine. Very moist. Have made them a number of times and they disappear!!! Thanks for sharing.

    Reply

    • Robin Gagnon says

      Glad to hear the recipe has worked out well for you. I tend to use a bit less sugar in my muffins and such these days as well.

      Reply

  15. Ilse says

    Made it but added 1/2 cup of flour to thicken the batter. Came out perfect so happy to have found your recipe.Thank you?❤️

    Reply

  16. Carol says

    This looks delicious. Are the 2 cups of oatmeal supposed to be grounded 2 cups or 2 cups whole oats and then grounded? Thanks!! 🙂

    Reply

    • Robin Gagnon says

      in this recipe the oats are measured prior to grinding

      Reply

  17. Sue says

    If I'm using Bob's Red Mill gluten free oat flour instead of oatmeal, do I use 2 cups?
    Thanks!

    Reply

    • Robin Gagnon says

      I am not sure what your exact measure would be using that product, but you would use less. The oats do reduce in volume when ground, I think it was by about 25%.

      Reply

  18. Rosalind d yawn says

    Can you use regular buttermilk instead of low-fat roz

    Reply

    • Robin Gagnon says

      yes, absolutely.

      Reply

  19. Victoria Bush says

    Banana bread is a favorite in just about every household. I happened to find this recipe several years ago and have been eating gluten-free since I have inflammatory issues. This is honestly the best banana bread I have ever eaten. It’s moist, nutty, and so delicious. It’s almost impossible to eat just one slice. Since I’ve been baking it, I’ve never made any other kind of banana bread. This is the best. I cut back the brown sugar to 3/8 a cup and everyone including grand children love this bread.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Oatmeal Banana Nut Bread ~ Easy Gluten Free Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why did my gluten free banana bread not rise? ›

Of course make sure that your yeast and baking powder is still active and fresh. Your bread will not rise if your yeast or baking powder has expired. A dense loaf could also be the result of not measuring your ingredients accurately.

Why is my gluten free banana bread so dense? ›

Why is my gluten-free banana bread doughy? Gluten-free bread doesn't have the same properties as regular bread and is naturally more dense. Overmixing and improperly measuring your ingredients is often a huge factor in whether your gluten free banana bread is doughy or moist.

Why is my gluten free banana bread gummy? ›

Wrong hydration: In other words, too much or too little water relative to the flour mixture.

Why does banana bread crack when baking? ›

First, why the crack occurs: Since quick breads and pound cake batters tend to be thick and dense, the exterior bakes first. But as the center of the cake continues to bake, releasing moisture, it rises, pushing through the top crust, and creating a crack.

What is the secret to getting gluten free bread to rise? ›

An easy way to create a good environment for gluten-free bread to rise is to turn your oven to 200 F; when it reaches this temperature, turn off the oven and place a shallow baking pan partially filled with hot water on one of the shelves.

What is the biggest challenge of making gluten free bread? ›

One of the challenges is that when gluten-free dough is thickened with additives like starches and gums, it becomes sticky. Some bakers dust sticky dough with flour, but that's problematic with gluten-free formulations.

What gluten-free flour is best for bread? ›

If you'd like to turn your favorite bread recipe into a gluten free one, look no further than Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour. A great substitute for traditional bread flour, it is designed to be used in nearly every wheat flour recipe.

Why is gluten free bread so hard to make? ›

Every gluten free flour blend also has a different grain-to-starch ratio, and this can affect so many things when you bake gluten free bread. Different grain-to-starch ratios affect how much liquid you will need to make the bread and the structure of the bread.

What happens when you put too much banana in banana bread? ›

Using too much banana could make your bread heavy and damp in the center, causing it to appear undercooked and unappealing. If you have bananas leftover, you can always freeze them for later use.

Which yeast is best for gluten free bread? ›

What type of yeast should be used to bake Gluten Free Bread? Active dry yeast and instant yeast both work well and are often interchangeable. Be on the lookout for any Rapid Rise yeast that is best for one rise. For most of us that's the way gluten free bread is baked, a single rise in the tin.

Why add vinegar to gluten free bread? ›

The addition of vinegar and sour cream helps the dough to be a bit more flexible when rolling out and also to brown slightly more easily when baked in the oven. Rice wine vinegar doesn't have a strong taste so it is useful for this dough, but it can be replaced with other acids.

Why does my gluten-free banana bread collapse? ›

If it did collapse then it is likely that the banana bread had not quite baked fully (and in light of the ingredient change may have needed a slightly longer baking time). All ovens vary, so the baking time is a guideline.

Why is my banana bread still gooey after an hour? ›

Bake for longer: If the center of your banana bread is still gooey, you may need to bake it for a longer time. Check the bread every 5-10 minutes by inserting a toothpick into the center. If it comes out with moist crumbs, continue baking until the toothpick comes out clean or with a few dry crumbs.

Why is my banana bread dry and hard? ›

Using too much butter makes for a heavier cake with less banana flavor. Using double the amount of butter that the recipe called for left me with a loaf that was dry on the outside and moist on the inside. The coloring was almost identical to that of the loaf made with too little butter.

Why is my banana bread not raising? ›

Inevitably, your banana bread will sink. your banana bread recipe might have too much chemical leavener: Leavening agents help your cakes and quick breads rise and you need to use enough for the quantity of ingredients present in your recipe.

Why is my gluten free bread flat? ›

If your gluten-free bread collapsed during or after baking, you either had too much liquid in the bread dough or over-proofed the yeast.

Why is my bread gluten not rising? ›

Dough may not have been kneaded enough. Kneading 'exercises' the gluten in the bread and gives it the elasticity to hold in the air bubbles produced by the yeast. It is these air bubbles that cause the dough to expand and rise.

Why do gluten free cakes not rise? ›

YOUR CAKE IS SINKING IN THE MIDDLE OR NOT RISING

You may not have used enough raising agents. I do recommend experimenting with double action baking powders. Otherwise try using 25 percent more chemical raising agents (baking soda or baking powder) if you're converting a recipe to gluten free.

References

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