Banana bread is one of those things that every home cook should have a great recipe for. It is a classic quick bread, freezes beautifully, adored by grown ups and kids alike, not to mention a great way to use up those not so pretty bananas sitting on the counter.

There are so many recipes for banana bread, and not all are great. I particularly dislike the oily or greasy banana breads.

I like a banana bread that slices well, has a nice crumb, browned, but not burned, and of course is packed with banana flavor. This can be a lot to ask for in a recipe, throw in needing it to be gluten free, and the task seems enormous.

Thankfully, Elizabeth Barbone has come to our rescue. She has a wonderful gluten free banana bread in her cookbook Easy Gluten-Free Baking. It is a very basic version, which you could elaborate on, adding chocolate chips or maybe some nuts. Here is my adaptation of Elizabeth’s recipe. This is seriously good banana bread. And did I mention it’s gluten free!!!!

Gluten free banana bread that looks & tastes normal!

Gluten Free Banana Bread

Use the finest rice flours available, it greatly improves the texture of your baked goods. I prefer Authentic Food’s Super Fine Rice Flours, but the rice flours sold in the Asian markets will also work.

wet ingredients:

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 1/3 cups very ripe mashed bananas
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla

dry ingredients:

  • 1 2/3 cups white rice flour
  • 1/3 cup cornstarch
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
  1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease and rice flour a 9×5 bread pan.
  2. In a small bowl, mix together sugar and mashed bananas; allow to sit for 15 minutes.
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk together dry ingredients.
  4. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at time, mixing well after each addition. Add half of the dry ingredients and blend until smooth. Add banana-sugar mixture and stir until well mixed. Add remaining dry ingredients and mix until smooth.
  5. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 50-60 minutes or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean (I cover the bread loosely with foil the last 10 minutes so it doesn’t over-brown).
  6. Place on a wire rack to cool 5 min before removing from pan. Place bread on a wire rack and cool completely before slicing.