Hello and welcome to the BEST banana bread recipe I’ve ever made – and it just so happens to be dairy-free banana bread!
I am absolutely in love with banana bread.
I am super thankful that I’ve been having these weird banana cravings lately and thus overbought bananas. And then several of the bananas went overripe and I was like, well obviously we need banana bread in this house. Stat.
I didn’t want any fancy schmancy banana bread. Just the good ol’ classic stuff, no walnuts thank you (blech). A moist, sweet, sturdy-yet-tender simple banana bread loaf that fills the house with that come-hither scent.
Yes, banana bread can be come-hithery. At least, I think so!
“Come hither.”
Okay, so by now I’ve talked about my dairy-free diet a looooot. And so we all know that dairy is no bueno for me. Many banana bread recipes call for butter and/or sour cream, but for dairy-free me, that wasn’t going to work.
So I wanted to come up with a classic banana bread recipe that nixed the dairy yet didn’t miss any of the flavor that dairy adds to the equation.
I started with this highly rated recipe on food.com and made a few tweaks. But just a handful! Because I wanted to keep this nice and simple.
And that it is.
This Easy Dairy-Free Banana Bread recipe comes together super quickly in one bowl. Basically, you mash your bananas (four of them for max banana goodness), then add in the sugars (half granulated sugar and then half dark brown sugar for a bit of flavah) and the oil. Beat in the eggs then stir in the vanilla (a must!). Then, just sift your dry ingredients over the top. Flour, baking soda, salt, and 2 glorious teaspoons of cinnamon. Aaaaand stir!
(Psst: If you prefer a no-egg, completely vegan situation, check out these Super-Moist Vegan Banana Bread Muffins.)
This perfect banana loaf takes a bit of time to cook – in my 8.5″ x 5″ baking pan it takes almost a full hour. WORTH IT. Inhale the luscious scent that wafts, cartoon-like, about your house and out your windows, luring your neighbors.
See, totally come-hither.
Other delicious dairy-free quick bread recipes
- These Super-Moist Vegan Banana Bread Muffins are absent dairy AND eggs but NOT absent moisture and flavor! Love these.
- In the fall, nothing hits the spot like this dairy-free Spiced Pumpkin Gingerbread. So moist and full of flavor!
- This pumpkin bread recipe is dairy-free AND gluten-free!
- This Zucchini Bread is such a unique twist on a classic, with olive oil, lemon, and cardamom. A fave!
If you try this recipe, please leave a rating! And, if you find it share-worthy – which I hope you do – please share. Tag #kitchentreaty on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest, and don’t forget to check out my other recipes!
Easy Dairy-Free Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 4 very ripe medium bananas
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup canola oil*
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a standard-size loaf pan (mine is 4.5" x 8.5"). Set aside.
- To a large mixing bowl, add the bananas. Using a potato masher, smash until as smooth as possible. Stir in the sugar and canola oil. Add the eggs and whisk together until smooth. Whisk in the vanilla.
- Set a fine-mesh sieve over the bowl. Add the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt to the sieve. Sift over the wet ingredients. Using a spatula, fold the dry ingredients into the wet, just until combined.
- Pour into the prepared loaf pan.
- Bake until middle is set and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean, 45 - 55 minutes (if you're using a larger pan than my 4.5" x 8.5" pan, start checking at around the 45 minute mark. For the smaller pan, it'll take a bit more time to cook in the middle - closer to 55 minutes).
- Remove from oven and let the loaf cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. Use a butter knife to loosen the sides of the loaf then gently invert the pan to remove the loaf. Let cool on a wire rack.
- Wrap in plastic wrap to store. Bonus: The plastic wrap also makes it nice and moist. Yum!
I’m so glad you’re here! I’m a vegetarian home cook, certified plant-based pro, and mom. I’m married to an enthusiastic carnivore, and my mission is to achieve peace in the kitchen – one tasty recipe at a time. These days, I also try not to ask to speak to the manager.
Since you are dairy-free, what do you spread on this? Or do you find it’s moist enough to not need butter/marjarine??
I love it plain (definitely moist enough), or sometimes I like to spread it with almond butter or vegan butter (like Miyokos or Earth Balance).
I made it tonight! My son just got his new diet recommended yesterday and I was feeling completely overwhelmed. Today I found your recipes, and tonight I made this banana bread and the almond flour chocolate chip cookies (minus the chips!). He loved both!! (And he ate the banana bread plain, it was plenty delicious & moist!)
I’m so glad both recipes were hits! Best of luck with your son’s new diet recommendations; I hope it helps!
OMG! Just made this for myself and my son (he can’t have dairy) and it’s simply amazing! Such a lovely moist loaf packed with banana flavours and a lovely hint of cinnamon. And, in what has to be a first for me, it was actually cooked in the time the recipe said instead of me having to spend a further ten minutes poking it with toothpicks until one finally came out clean.
Oh, I’m gluten free, and I just substituted in Dove GF self-raising flour and it worked a treat, btw.
I’m so glad you liked this one! Thanks so much for sharing about the GF flour – that will be helpful to our gluten-free readers!
What if i only have two bananas on hand? Will it still work or do I have to change the ingredient ratio in some way?
If they’re large bananas it should work just fine! I just made it yesterday with two large bananas and one medium and it turned out great. It’s a pretty forgiving recipe.
What if I have 6 bananas, can I use all six?
I wouldn’t go that high, it’ll likely take forever to bake and get too dark on the outside before the inside is cooked through.
Absolutely delicious! I used 2 large bananas and substituted the granulated sugar for Coconut sugar and some of the flour for almond flour and even added some walnuts for a bite.
Oh gosh, I especially love the idea of using coconut sugar in this banana bread, I bet it adds the most wonderful caramelly, nutty note! Thanks so much for sharing and coming back to leave a review.
Hey! Can we use olive oil instead? Thank you
Sure! Depending on which kind you use, it can add a bit of a floral note. I will sometimes use olive oil in zucchini bread and it’s delicious. If you try it, please report back!
This was awesome!! Just as good as dairy banana bread if not better!! thanks so much for sharing 🙂
So glad you liked it! Thanks so much for coming back and leaving a review. 🙂
I am fairly new to baking and was looking for a dairy-free banana bread recipe, low and behold I found this recipe. My siblings and I absolutely enjoyed it. I was able to make 4 loaves because my family is so large. I plan on making a few more loaves today. Thank you for this moist and delicious recipe! 🙂
Hi Nella! I’m so glad this was a hit for you and your siblings. It’s a favorite around here, too! Thank you so much for coming back and leaving a review!
What would you substitute from egg? I would love to make this for my girlfriends but one of them is vegan.
You can use flaxseed meal as an egg substitute for vegans. Google how to do it!:)
Can I subsitute the all-purpose flour for gluten free flour?
Yes! I just did yesterday with Cup4Cup and it came out amazing!!!!
*cup4cup has milk powder (which doesn’t bother me but I just realized it may be a problem for others….) Bobs Red Mill 1 to 1 doesn’t have milk and that works well too.
better than any other recipe I tried with butter! So moist, no butter needed on top!
So glad this was a winner for you! 🙂 Thank you so much for leaving a review.
Love this recipe, I used olive oil in the recipe (I’m in the UK and unsure what canola oil is). It doesn’t need spread as moist, but I did have some chocolate spread to use up *scoffs the loaf in one sitting
Easy recipe…so very yummy.
So glad you liked it! 🙂
This is the first banana bread recipe that worked for me. I bake a lot and am generally very good but banana bread has been my Achilles’ heel and you just provided a remedy for it.
I added a handful of dark chocolate chips and pecans and my family (and I) loved it.
Thank you so much for sharing, I’m book-marking this page forever !
Oh I’m so glad this was a winner for you! The chocolate chips sound like a fine addition. 🙂 Thank you for the review!
I’ve been making this banana bread recipe since the beginning of the pandemic and it is a fan favourite around my 6-person household. I had never made anything that required some type of milk with a non-dairy milk and I was a bit nervous to use something different, but I jumped on this recipe when I saw that it was dairy-free because my (recent at the time) boyfriend is allergic to dairy. Every time I have made this, the loaves have come out perfectly browned on the outside and oh so deliciously moist on the inside. The loaves don’t even last a day in my house around here, I’ve started making two loaves each time but even that doesn’t seem to last much longer than the first. Thanks for this awesome recipe and for allowing me to provide amazing, dairy-free banana bread for my boyfriend and our family 🙂
I’m so glad to hear this has been a hit for you, your boyfriend, and your family! Gotta enjoy the wins where we can find them during this crazy time. Thank you so much for coming back and leaving a review. 🙂
wooh! i love your recipe! thank u very much! tweaked some – i used evoo & part coco sap sugar. cake came out moist & super delicious!
Delicious! A perfect snack to have with coffee or tea! Keep it up! Pop by my new blog to see some of my healthy recipes if you like!
I’ve made this at least ten times since everything shut down the first time for Covid. My entire family loves it. It is the most delicious banana bread I’ve ever made. I’m the only one who needs to be dairy free in my house, so sometimes I make two loaves and add chocolate chips to one for the kids. Highly recommend!
I’m so glad this is a hit for you! Great idea to make two loaves, one with chocolate chips. Thank you so much for coming back and leaving a review!
Love this banana bread recipe! Baked really well. My family ate it all in one day!
Hi! I just gave this recipe a try with a few alterations. I added 1 T of cocoa powder and 1/4 C dark chocolate chips because, why not? We also used sunflower oil instead of Canola because that’s what was in our pantry. This recipe is perfect. It makes a fool-proof chocolate chip banana bread! Just follow the directions. Delicious, thanks for sharing the magic.
This looks like an awesome dairy free banana bread recipe & I am so excited to try it! How long does this stay fresh? I would like to make this about 2 days before we would be eating it.
This recipe is excellent. I just added blended nuts (pecan and walnut to the batter). The banana bread is prefect- right balance of sweetness. Not too sweet or bland, just great recipe.
This is so good I definitely recommend this recipe and I will make sure to use it again.
I’m so glad you like it! Thank you so much for the review. 🙂
Can I substitute the eggs with apple sauce and how much.
Debra
I like subbing flax eggs for eggs and find the result to be pretty close. I’ve not tried subbing applesauce.
Hello,
Can unsweetened applesauce be a substitute for the oil?
Thanks,
Lori
Hi Lori, I’ve not tried it this way but I’m sure it would work. If you try it, please report back! Thanks!
Excellent, everyone loved it. And I loved how easy it was to make
Exceptional
Mmmmmm such a delicious recipe!!! I subbed avocado oil for the canola and only had three bananas. I also added chocolate chips. Definitely my go-to banana bread recipe now!
This is the most delicious banana bread I’ve ever had in my life. Made exactly as recipe
Except used grapeseed oil because I dislike canola
Thank you so much for sharing this! I’ve made it twice already, and since both time I only had 3 bananas, I added a chopped apple. It is delicious and the texture is amazing!
This is an amazing and it is really tasty …Thanks for sharing
Love it!
I added flaxseed meal, chia seeds and hemp hearts, plus some walnuts and chocolate chips for some extra nutrition and a chocolate fix. Turned out amazing! Thanks for the recipe!
yum!
I want to substitute brown sugar and white sugar. What do you suggest?
Thank you so much for this wonderful and easy recipe! It came out like a dream.
I tried it and it was perfect.
Awesome awesome cake
Very moist, doesn’t need spread! I only had light brown sugar, and my cinnamon was heaping teaspoons (didn’t need to be). This will be my go-to! Thanks!
We are newly dairy free because of our daughter so we are constantly looking for new recipes to replace our old ones. This is so good we ate over half the loaf as soon as it was done!
I use avocado oil, white sugar 7.5 ounces instead of the brown sugar, and a 1/2 oz. of maple syrup. It makes the bread a little bit lighter in color and texture.
Thank you for sharing!
Easy to make and taste wonderful.
The BEST recipe to turn into muffins!
Subbed coconut oil instead of canola and 3/4 cup maple syrup instead of sugar.
Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.
Toddler and mom approved!
Oh, what a great idea! ❤️
This turned out amazing! I substituted a cup of rapadura sugar and added a half cup of roughly chopped pecans. So good and dairy free too!
I love the recipe is the best recipe of banana bread ever
thank you so much for the review!
Which other oil can you use
Coconut oil would work!
Can I make them in cupcake pans instead? So use the same recipe but for muffins?
I’m sure this will work fine, though I haven’t tried it! I’d suggest to start checking them for being done at the 15 minute mark.