Looking for the easiest gluten free + dairy free chocolate chip banana bread recipe? Look no further!
Honestly, is there anything better than homemade banana bread??
Yes. Homemade CHOCOLATE CHIP banana bread….. đ
To make this gluten free, dairy free version of Chocolate Chip Banana Bread, I used Bob’s Red Mill GF 1:1 Baking Flour, and Enjoy Life Foods dark chocolate morsels. If you don’t need to follow any dietary restrictions, you could use regular flour and regular/milk chocolate chips.
I get asked all the time: “Clara, should I go gluten-free or dairy-free??”.
My answer is usually, “it depends”. The reality is, I don’t know your unique medical history, so I can’t just tell you that you “should” go GF or DF. You could certainly experiment with your intake and see if you feel any better following a gluten free or diary free diet, but at the end of the day the goal should really be to follow the least restrictive diet. And, don’t just blindly follow a diet because me, or another influencer or food blogger does.
I used to LOVE dairy, and ate both gluten and dairy on a regular occasion…that was, until I got food poisoning in 2017. Since then, I noticed that I was having terrible, PAINFUL cystic acne breakouts and dry skin that seemed to come out of no where. Desperate, I gave up both gluten and dairy for a few weeks just to see if it helped.
Well….it did. Turns out, after having something like food poisoning, our gut really takes a hit, and sometimes that can lead to food intolerances. For me it manifests as terrible, painful acne with intake of gluten and dairy-containing foods…but for others it might be joint pain, or brain fog, or constipation, or something else!
Again, this isn’t to say if you struggle from one of these things that you must omit gluten and/or dairy from your diet. But maybe it does mean paying more attention to what you eat, and the symptoms you get afterwards. Which really, we would all benefit from some simple mindfulness and awareness around what we are eating.
If you do feel like you would benefit from a gluten-free or dairy-free way of eating, it is best to work with a registered dietitian to ensure you still get adequate intake of all the vitamins and minerals your body needs. Things like calcium, vitamin D, and B vitamins are all found in dairy or gluten-containing foods, but they are also in a myriad of other items, as well!!!
Bottom line: you don’t NEED to follow a gluten-free or dairy-free diet to be “healthy”. It will be dependent on your personal medical history. If you are concerned that you might need to follow a gluten-free or dairy-free diet, consider working with a dietitian to make sure you go about it the best way.
Whether you eat gluten and dairy or not, I can assure you this Chocolate Chip Banana Bread will be a HIT!
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 2-3 ripe bananas, mashed
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup peanut butter (or alternative)
- 1 tsp almond extract (sub vanilla)
- 1 cup GF 1:1 baking flour I used Bob's Red Mill
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/3 cup chocolate chips Use Enjoy Life Foods for DF
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and line a loaf pan with parchment paper (it helps to crinkle it up first).
- Mix wet ingredients together. Gently fold in dry ingredients until just combined.
- Pour batter into loaf pan, sprinkle additional chocolate chips, then transfer to oven to bake for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Allow to cool (the hardest part, I KNOW) prior to slicingâŚ.then ENJOY!
