Banana bread is the best. When I think back to my childhood, most of my memories are around food. Not people, not experiences, but food. And one of those food memories is a banana bread loaf (and sometimes pumpkin bread) that we would get at the local grocery store. I would eat it straight out of the tin with a fork because cutting it into slices seemed like too much work…and I didn’t understand portion control. I simply understood the dopamine dump I was getting from consuming such a lovely piece (meaning loaf) of bread. Well nowadays I prefer my dopamine dump to come from a banana bread that has no yellow #5 or canola oil or propylene glycol. Instead, I much prefer some dates, bananas, and some delicious butter…inside AND on top.
Since I’m currently in the third trimester of pregnancy, ready to pop any damn day, I’m eating a lot of dates. And if you’ve never been pregnant or never heard about what dates can do for you during pregnancy…let me give you a visual. I know that’s what you came here for when you were searching for a banana bread recipe! Starting at 36 weeks, eating dates daily can help ripen your cervix. That’s right…we’re talking about ripe bananas AND ripe cervix over here. That’s where my life is at these days. So I’m eating dates, adding them to smoothies, and consuming them in banana bread since that way is the most enjoyable way…all in hopes that labor is even just a tad smoother than it would be if I hadn’t eaten dates. I’m also do about a million other things like drinking raspberry leaf tea, taking evening primrose oil, curb walking (these sneakers and these ones, too, are majorly coming in handy since my feet are swelling and need allll the support), getting abdominal uterine massages, and about anything else they say may help induce and improve labor. Let’s gooooooo, baby girl!
I’m thinking I may whip up one last batch of this banana bread before she gets here. It’s just so damn good. It’s much more dense than the normal banana bread I make and I really dig that. You have to make sure it’s heated up and has a big ole helping of organic grass-fed butter on top. No skimping when it comes to this banana bread. Get that dopamine rush, baby! Speaking of that…maybe I’ll order some groceries today to not only load up on ingredients for this banana bread, but so I can make sure I have all the snacks for our birth center bag! Birth is a marathon and I want to be fully prepared with food that keeps me energized throughout! I’m so damn excited for birth! Kloveyoubyeeeeeee!
Date Banana Bread
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 35 minutes
- Yield: 8-10 slices 1x
Ingredients
- 12 medjool dates, pitted
- 3/4 cup hot water
- 3 brown bananas
- 1/3 cup melted butter (ghee, coconut oil, etc.)
- 1 egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups gluten free flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a bread pan with coconut oil spray and line with parchment paper.
- Place dates in a bowl and cover with hot water then let stand and soften for 10 minutes.
- In a food processor, add dates along with the water and pulse to begin to break down the dates. Then place food processor on low and blend until the dates have completely broken down and begin to thicken up, almost like a caramel. Then add the bananas, melted butter, egg, and vanilla extract. Once completely combined, add to a large bowl and slowly mix in the gluten free flour, baking soda, and salt.
- Pour mixture into greased and lined bread pan.
- Place in the oven and bake for 55 minutes to 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean from the middle of the loaf. After 30 minutes, take a piece of aluminum foil and place it lightly over the top of the banana bread to keep from browning too much. Once banana bread is cooked through, let stand for 10 minutes before removing from pan and then let cool on a rack. Serve warm with some butter and enjoy your life! Store in the fridge in a closed container.
What I Used To Make This Recipe:
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Wow wow wow 🤩 these are fantastic and will be my go to recipe for banana bread!! I made them into muffins and they were perfect after 23 min. Also used an egg replacer. Thanks for another great recipe!
I also did muffins instead! Worked just fine!
I make this banana bread on a regular basis. It’s quite honestly my favorite recipe to make and is delicious every time. 🔥🔥
what did i do wrong? it wouldn’t cook. i kept adding 5 mins waiting for the toothpick to come out clean… after 30 extra minutes i took it out and it went flat and was still batter. i used coconut oil and followed the recipe exactly.
sounds like you may have missed the baking soda!
Same on the not baking all the way, and I know I added the baking soda🫤
Also, I hate to say this because I want to do healthier food, but it was kind of bland for me 😔
Open to the fact I did something wrong, but I probably won’t be trying this again for a while
Juli,
This banana bread is so Deelish!! I made it a couple weeks ago and then again last night. This time I added chopped walnuts! So so good, this will be a staple in our house. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
This date banana bread is incredibly delicious! I added dark chocolate and walnuts to mine (which is really tasty), but I am sure it would be great plain too. I found that the bread only needed to be cooked for 50 minutes at 350, and it turned out moist and not too sweet. Thank you so much for this amazing recipe!
Yummy!! I converted this to 12 big fluffy muffins. I added ground and fresh ginger, so this is like banana bread meets sticky toffee pudding meets gingerbread. Delicious!
I wish I would have made this during my pregnancy! I ate dates daily starting at 36 weeks— this would have been a nice change! I am 6 months postpartum now & it’s my second time making this recipe. I love that it is sweetened with dates and butter as the oil makes it extra delicious.
so glad you love it now!
Ok, I have made this twice now and I want so badly for it to be good (I love the addition of dates instead of sugar) but it’s just not turning out. Not sure if I’m doing something wrong or if it’s just the recipe. Mine has turned out twice like it’s not fully cooked, the texture feels slightly gummy (?) and seems not fully cooked, pretty difficult to cut. It’s possible I’m just not used to GF breads and that’s the trouble. Has anyone else has this issue or am I just doing something wrong? I did cook it for ~70 mins instead of 55 because it didn’t seem done in the center at 55. For the record I also used the Bob’s GF flour mix. Open to any suggestions because I really want this to be good!
This was dry and bland. While reading it I already suspected it needed some flavor, so I added cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom, but it was still very bland. If I try it again I might add ginger and/or greatly increase the spices. And chocolate chips would add a lot, too. The recipe said to bake 50 minutes, I set my timer to 45 and actually took it out at 35.
Kinda bland? Idk what I did wrong but I think next time I’d need to add some sugar