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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I made this recipe with the egg replacer and it turned out perfect!
so good to hear, thank you for sharing that substitution!!
This bread is EVERYTHING!!!! I’m 33 weeks pregnant and I’m making my third loaf right now. It’s not overly sweet and so dang good with some grass fed butter on top. I also had extra peanut butter buttercream icing that I put on a few slices too. Oh my!!!!
woooohoooo!! so so glad you like it!
This gluten free, refined sugar free, banana date bread is simply FANTASTIC! I did let it bake for the full 1hr 10 mins at 350 F and it got a bit dark and smelt like it was starting to burn, although it didn’t taste burnt. Perhaps the next time I’ll take it out after 1 hr. (I’ll figure it out because I will definitely be making it again and again and add some chopped walnuts sometimes). I used Bob’s Red Mill all purpose gluten free flour. Thank you for sharing this treasure!
Eating this with butter as I type review 🙂 delicious! I used deglet noor dates (18 as they are a little smaller) as that’s what I had. I also used avocado oil and Bob’s Red Mill gf all-purpose baking flour. Many thanks for another great recipe Juli! PS Avery is adorable, congrats!
I used about one cup of dried dates as it’s what I had on hand but followed the recipe as written and this was so delicious. My spouse and adult daughter were also very amazed as they were doubtful a date sweetened banana bread would be any food. Joke’s on them! Thanks Juli for a fantastic recipe.
Just made this tonight for the first time. I doubled the recipe and used a 9×13 cast iron casserole pan. 30 mins at 350 was perfect!! We are going camping this weekend and I know what I’m taking as a sweet treat!! Definitely making this one again and again.
Made this today…so good, the teenagers have devoured it! I added chocolate chips and pecans!.
Made this banana bread today and it is delicious! I baked it for a full hour, but took it out because I didn’t want it to be dry. It definitely wasn’t dry even though the outside was pretty toasty. The bottom part was a little more on the moist side than the top so I’m thinking maybe I’ll try an extra 5 mins next time, but it’s still delicious. I just need to perfect the time in my oven. Thanks for a great recipe!
I made this tonight and followed the recipe except I used almond flour and it turned out great! It did great dark on top but not burned. I think the dates must have something to do with that. I was nervous to put the water and dates in my food processor and sure enough it shot out everywhere. I had to wrap a towel around it to keep it from coming out but once the water and dates got blended together it was fine. I also put the salt, baking soda, and almond flour in the food processor to mix. thanks for a great recipe!
Delicious! Moist and not too sweet! This will be my new go to banana bread recipe!
This is TO. DIE FOR. I was worried about baking with the dates, but seriously so easy! And absolutely delicious. Can’t wait to make it again!