Easy Plantain Banana Bread (AIP, Paleo, Vegan)
Banana bread… I’m obsessed. Always have been, always will be. Honestly, I don’t really remember having banana bread as a kid. I was more a chocolate chip cookie type kiddo… still am. But, I digress. I got hooked in the banana sweet stuff in high school. One day someone brought a loaf over for some occasion and it was a done deal for me. It quickly became one of my absolute favorite sweet treats and has been for years. I haven’t had banana bread in years for various reasons. First of course, I’m Paleo/ AIP and no longer eat gluten, grains, eggs, dairy, or refined sugar, and I don’t really like complicated recipes that don’t come out close enough to the real deal. Until I made my own paleo and AIP plantain banana bread.
So, why plantains? Well, they’re awesome. I never even had plantains until I went AIP and I was missing out for years. Plantains are basically just a more starchy banana that can be made into chips or tostones when they’re green (which is my favorite) or eaten as a sweet treat when they turn yellow. Because they’re more starchy, they help hold recipes up much better than just bananas alone, which was crucial for this recipe as there aren’t any eggs. Not even a gelatin egg! That’s why this is classified as “easy” 😉 Thanks to the plantains, this bread holds up perfectly, and all you have to do is basically mix it all together.
Another standout ingredient in this bread in cinnamon. Cinnamon and banana are just such a great flavor combination. The cinnamon gives this banana bread a bit of a cinnamon sugar type flavor, while helping give it some more color! As for topping the bread, I went with slicing a banana into thin slices and layering it on top of the bread with an extra sprinkle of cinnamon. You can easily add chocolate chips (or carob for AIP) or even top it with shredded coconut. Yum! After you slice it, this bread goes great with ghee or grass-fed butter if tolerated. It’s also great with a bit of coconut oil, coconut butter, or even a homemade jam.
Be still my heart.
I like banana bread out of the oven after it’s cooled for a bit, and my husband likes to slice it thin and toast it under the broiler! Either way, we both love adding ghee to it.
This bread is easy to make, it holds together wonderfully, and has a subtle flavor that even non-AIP folks will love!
Plantain Banana Bread (Paleo, AIP, Vegan)
Ingredients
- 2 yellow plantains with black spots
- 2 very ripe bananas
- 1/2 cup coconut flour
- 1/4 cup cassava flour
- 1/4 cup tapioca starch
- 3 tbsp coconut oil
- 2 tbsp coconut sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- Optional:
- 1 sliced banana (not overly ripe) to top the bread
- Extra sprinkle of cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 F
- Line a loaf pan with parchment paper and grease it with coconut oil
- Add the plantains and bananas to a high speed blender or food processor to thoroughly combine and mash
- Scoop out the plantain banana mixture into a mixing bowl and add the remainder of the ingredients
- Stir to combine
- Pour the dough into a loaf pan and smooth out to where the top if flat
- Add optional toppings like sliced banana and cinnamon, etc.
- Bake for 40 minutes
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool before serving
- Serve warm with a spread or simply by itself
And that’s all there is to it! Sweet, cinnamon-y goodness that’ll make you feel super nostalgic!
Enjoy <3
AIP
Low Carb
Paleo
Whole30
any subs for cassava flour? I find it difficult to spend $9-$10 for a pound of flour (of any kind), unless it has gold flakes in it 😉
Hi, Mary! Someone told me they used tigernut flour in place of cassava and it worked 🙂 I may even try just a 1/2 cup of more plantain? I haven’t tested either and can’t really guarantee it’ll come out like the picture, but let me know if you do! Also, the brand “Moon Rabbit” on Amazon is much cheaper and is what I used in this recipe 🙂
Thanks for the info. I was believing that Otto’s was the only one in existence. I found several in the Amazon search for $6/lb or even less. yea! That opens up a lot of possibilities!
hi!
I echo Mary’s enquiries, because here on the west Coast of Canada, we can’t get Cassava flour at all (baring exhorbitant prices and customs duties).
Thoughts, suggestions would be great!
Tx
Val
Hi, Val! Someone told me they used tigernut flour in place of cassava and it worked 🙂 I may even try just a 1/2 cup of more plantain? I haven’t tested either and can’t really guarantee it’ll come out like the picture, but let me know if you do!
Thank you! I’ll try this. Appreciate your response. Take care, Val
accidentally used arrowroot flour instead of tapioca, lets see how it turns out.
turned out great. did mine in a muffin pan and took out after 20 mins.
That’s great to know, Cory!! Thank you 😀
Cory, were your muffins dense or more fluffy and breadlike? Might try the muffin tin next time!
awesome I will do this as I am out of my Otto’s cassava flour
Is this banana bread dense and chewy or more fluffy and bread-like?
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i was told i have an intolerance to bananas, amongst many other good nutritious foods… do you think there is anything to substitute?
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Whenever I cook with plantains it ends up dark brown. How can I avoid this
Are you using green plantains? They won’t turn brown if they’re green. They’ll turn brown in this recipe either way.
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should i use egg substitute if I don”t have plantains or another banana?
I’ve only tried the recipe as written so I can’t be sure that an egg substitute would work the same. The plantain adds a lot of structure, so I’m not sure if an egg sub would hold it up quite as well. You can probably get away with an egg sub in lieu of another banana, but not sure!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE this recipe! I added raisins to it the first time, and shredded carrot, coconut and raisins the second time. Fantastic when you are on an elimination diet.
★★★★★
Thank you so, so much Lisa!! The addition of raisins sounds so good! I’ll have to try that next time!
I’ve made this recipe twice now and both times it’s come out really wet even after additional baking time. What am i doing wrong?
I find that there’s a lot of variance with different brands of coconut flour and how absorbant they are… I use the brand Anthony’s! If you find that the dough is too wet, you can try adding a bit more coconut flour to offset the moisture. Allowing the bread to rest for longer also helps with grain free baked goods.
Thank you, Michelle. I’ve been following you for a while and made some of your savory recipes (the Cranberry Sweet Potato Turkey Poppers are a tour de force, thank you) but this is the first baked sweet recipe I’ve tried. Do you think this could be done with cassava flour only instead of a mix of flours? I’m not quite sure of how different flours substitute for each other. Or maybe add an egg substitute.. I want to be able to bake again.
If you make this again, it might be useful to add a gif of the dough consistency to see what is expected.
I’ll still eat this, underbaked or not because the mixture is just delicious.
So, i’ve now made this recipe 5 times. The first two times were a disaster, bread didn’t set, dough as too soft. But since i hate the taste of gelatin in baked goods, i was determined to make this recipe work. So, on the 3rd try and after your comment, i realized two things need to happen for this to be a success – the dough needs to be quite dry and to set aside some of the plantain/banana mixture to mix the baking soda in until it foams and then add into the mixture.
I now make this largely without measurements and add and substitute with reckless abandon. Short on bananas/plantains? Add some stewed apples or pears after you mix the baking soda in them. Add carob to half the dough, go heavy handed on the cinnamon; throw in vanilla and almond extract if tolerated. Add carob chips, throw in a bunch of grated coconut; omit the sugar, this thing is sweet enough. Tonight i ran out of cassava flour so i added more coconut flour, a bit more tapioca starch, grated coconut and some tigernut flour for good measure. As long as the dough is quite dry, and i bake it a bit longer, it turns out really well.
Thank you, Michelle, for developing this recipe and giving me back breakfast. I’ll even make a sandwich on this thing. A real winner.
What if you only have fully, very black plantains? Would that work or do they have to be yellow with black spots? Thank you!
You probably can though it may change the texture a bit.
This is wonderful. I had 3 very ripe bananas and 3 ripe plantains I needed to use, so I adjusted the recipe for the additional banana and plantain and made 48 mini muffins. They are so good. I just have to remember not to eat too many at a time. Thank you for this!
★★★★★
First time making this and came out completely uncooked. I read through all the comments. I’d say my dough wasn’t too wet, but it didn’t want to cook at all. I saw the suggestion to mix the baking soda with some of the plantain mixture; I’ll try that next time. Any other suggestions??
Sorry about that! It could be the brand of the coconut flour… I like to use Anthonys and have the most success with that!
Do you know the nutritional breakdown of this fabulous sounding recipe? Protein, sugar and carb content for example. Obviously I can leave out the sweetener.
I’m on an anti-candida protocol where I have to limit my carbs to 50g per day.
So no eggs? I’m just confused how the bread holds together
The banana can act as an egg substitute and the coconut flour is extra absorbent