Easy Dairy-Free Banana Nut Bread is a simple, one-bowl recipe for a delicious and moist banana loaf with walnuts, using overripe bananas and oil, but without milk or butter.
If you have a batch of spotty, overripe bananas sitting on your counter, this Easy Dairy-Free Banana Nut Bread is a terrific way to use them.
Made with simple pantry staples, this loaf comes together effortlessly in just one bowl. Because this moist banana nut bread is dairy-free, it is perfect whether you ran out of milk or butter or follow a dairy-free diet.
It also freezes very well, and the crunchy walnut addition gives it a wonderful texture.
A little about bananas
Bananas are a healthy and comparatively inexpensive fruit. The most popular type found in grocery stores starts out (and is shipped to destination countries) green but turns yellow by the ripening process. Unripe, they are not sweet but get softer and sweeter as they ripen.
Bananas normally have approximately 80-110 calories, depending on size, and are almost exclusively made up of carbohydrates and water, with only a little protein and no fat. In addition, bananas have nutrients, antioxidants, and a variety of other health benefits.
When used in baking, the overripe bananas (the kind that you would often throw out as non-edible) give the most flavor. And you can freeze bananas (even those that are ripe and flavorful enough for good eating).
Want to try more baked goods with banana?
Baking and Dessert Pantry Essentials
There are the baking ingredients that I try to keep in the house at all times:
- flour
- white granulated sugar
- brown sugar (light/dark—I usually keep dark)
- confectioners’ sugar (powdered sugar)
- salt
- baking powder
- baking soda
- cocoa powder
- ground cinnamon
- ground nutmeg
- ground ginger
- ground cloves
- baking chocolate
- chocolate chips
- instant dry yeast
- vanilla and/or vanilla sugar
- cooking oil/cooking spray
- margarine or butter
- eggs
- honey
- instant coffee
- various extracts (real or imitation)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Can I freeze this banana nut bread?
Yes. Just keep it in an air-tight freezer bag or container so that air doesn’t get in. If that happens, your banana bread may get freezer burn, and that will affect the taste.
Why do recipes have salt in the ingredients of baked goods?
Even though salt tends to make foods, well, salty, it actually plays other roles in baking as well.
For example, the right amount of salt balances flavors in baked goods; it can bring out the sweetness of sugar and, at the same time, prevent them from tasting overly sweet. It also can help dull the bitterness of cocoa.
Salt prevents baked goods from tasting bland, while it balances the richness of the fats. It also helps develop flavor in yeast breads and works with proteins to strengthen gluten and make it more elastic.
Salt also slows down yeast fermentation because it prevents the yeast from eating up the sugars too quickly, which otherwise would cause the dough to rise too fast and then ultimately collapse, causing bread to come out flat instead of fluffy.
Salt helps baked goods stay a little fresher for a little longer and helps delay mold from growing on them.
Some types of salt in baking:
Kosher salt—called “kosher” because it is used in the process of making meat kosher for observant Jewish consumption. The grains are large.
Table salt—this is what we use to flavor our food at the table. The grains are much smaller than those of kosher salt.
Flaky salt—flakes of salt that are used for decoration and add a salty taste to the already-baked good.
Sea salt—like table salt, but processed differently.
A lot of recipes call specifically for sea salt. There is no difference in the baking process or taste between sea salt and table salt, and both contain approximately 40% sodium.
However, while table salt is usually mined from underground salt deposits, is heavily processed, and often contains the nutrient iodine, sea salt is made by evaporating water from the ocean, sea, or lakes with saltwater and may contain very small amounts of some minerals.
Can I substitute honey for granulated sugar in baking?
The short answer to this question is yes.
However, there are some things to consider, because the substitution is not 1:1.
Honey is denser and contains more fructose than white granulated sugar, so it is sweeter. Also, honey contains almost 20% liquid, so adjustments must be made for these differences.
First of all, the glucose and fructose in honey make it sweeter than granulated sugar, so you would use only ¾ of the amount of sugar in the recipe’s ingredients. Second, since honey already contains liquid, you should reduce the amount of liquid that the recipe calls for by 25% to maintain consistency.
Honey is also naturally acidic, whereas granulated sugar is not, so in order to neutralize the acidity you will be adding to your baking, you can add ¼ teaspoon of baking soda per cup of honey to the ingredients.
Lastly, since honey contains simple sugars that caramelize and burn at lower temperatures than granulated sugar does, you should lower the temperature by 25 degrees from that required in the recipe. This is to help prevent the outside from baking quicker than the inside of your baked goods.
Note:
There are a few additional things to note about substituting honey for sugar, though.
First, if you use honey rather than granulated sugar for baked goods that are supposed to be crispy, they will come out softer.
Second, you cannot “cream” if you replace granulated sugar with honey, so recipes that are meant to come out light because of creaming butter with sugar will come out denser.
Lastly, honey is still a sugar, and it has approximately 30% more calories than granulated sugar does (but this will be somewhat compensated by the fact that you will be reducing the quantity of honey versus sugar in the recipe).
What is the difference between baking soda and baking powder?
Baking soda and baking powder are both synthetic leavens that help baked goods rise, but there is a difference between them.
Baking soda is pure sodium bicarbonate, which needs another ingredient that is acidic in order to be activated. When the baking soda touches the acid, it creates a carbon dioxide gas, which helps the baked good rise. Baking soda is between 3 and 4 times stronger than baking powder, and if too much baking soda is used, your baked good will end up with a metallic flavor.
Baking powder is baking soda that is already mixed with an acid and a stabilizer and will be activated by moisture and heat. Nowadays, baking powder is called double-acting because it activates twice—once when it gets wet (when you mix the ingredients together) and again when it heats in the oven.
Replacing one with the other can be tricky, and it’s not recommended. However, if you have no choice, then do solid research for substituting one for the other for the baked good you are preparing so you don’t ruin it.
What do eggs do in baking?
Eggs are made up of two parts: the whites and the yolks (the yellow).
Egg whites are made up of protein that sets when heated and helps baked goods hold their structure. The yolks are made up of fats and vitamins and help ingredients bond.
Eggs also help baked goods rise as well as keep them moist.
It is important to have the right amount of eggs when baking, because if there are too many eggs in a recipe, this can cause a rubbery, dense texture, and if there are too few eggs, this can cause a crumbly, dry texture.
The different parts of the egg will provide different textures to baked goods; using the entire egg in baking will provide moisture and help the baked good rise evenly, using extra yolks will create richer, denser textures, and extra whites will add fluffiness but may create a drier texture.
What is the difference between butter and margarine?
Butter is a dairy product that is made by churning heavy cream until the fats separate from the milk (i.e., buttermilk). Margarine, however, is made from vegetable oil. Butter generally has a lower melting point than margarine as well as a lower water content (and the soft tub margarines have a higher water content than bar margarines).
Using butter in baking cookies can create a crisper, more flaky cookie, while cookies will come out softer and more cakey when made with margarine. It is also generally believed to be better to “cream” using butter rather than margarine.
Using butter adds a kind of toasted nut flavor to baked goods, while margarine doesn’t add flavor (however, sometimes with margarine, one might have a waxy feel on the roof of one’s mouth after eating something with a high margarine content).
If one wants to make a dairy-free baked good that calls for butter, a dairy-free margarine is a good substitute.
What is the difference between dairy-free margarine and vegan butter?
Vegan butter and margarine have similarities. In fact, all vegan butter is a type of dairy-free margarine. The difference between them is in the content and the baking performance.
Vegan butter is made from fats such as coconut oil, shea butter, or cocoa butter and behaves like butter in that it creates more flaky and crisp textures and has a toasted nutty flavor, while margarine is typically made with the less expensive vegetable oils.
What is the difference in using oil vs butter or margarine?
Both margarine and butter are solid fats at room temperature, and both contain more saturated fats than oil.
While margarine and butter will change from a solid to a liquid when heated, they will change back to solids when cooled again. Oil stays liquid at all temperatures. Oil also coats flour better in the preparation process before baking.
Butter “creams” better than margarine, but one cannot cream oil at all.
When converting a recipe from butter or margarine to oil, the general conversion rate is 1 to ¾ (although if you are doing more than one batch, you might need to reduce the oil because I have found that baked goods come out oily in this case).
And when converting from oil to margarine or butter, typically the ratio is 1 to 1¼.
What is the difference between real vanilla extract and imitation vanilla?
Real vanilla is made from soaking vanilla beans in alcohol, imitation vanilla is synthetic, and real vanilla costs quite a bit more than imitation. Whether or not there will be a taste difference in your baking depends on the baked good, so do some research before you decide.
I personally always use the imitation as long as I have a really good brand because it’s not worth it to me to spend the extra money.
Tips for baking
Preparing the batter
As obvious as that may sound (except to people like me), following instructions when baking is important.
It seems that all too often, bloggers will add extra steps or add extra ingredients, unnecessarily complicating the recipes.
Nonetheless, sometimes what seems unnecessary can be helpful.
That noted, the best way to start, unless directed otherwise, is by putting the dry ingredients in the bowl first and combining them together and then adding the wet ingredients.
I haven’t found that it matters much what order ingredients are put in the bowl when it comes to dough, however, with batter, it can make a difference, and it is a good practice to add the wet ingredients, one at a time, blending lightly in between, mixing slowly and thoroughly.
Dumping all of the ingredients in before mixing can leave flour clumps, which may not dissolve while baking, and mixing too quickly will add air bubbles, which can create air gaps in the cake.
Flour clumps, especially the larger ones, may not bake into your cake, and you may find them in your slices. If you have them, remove as many as you can before baking. Using a strainer helps. (Yes, this has happened to me.)
If you find you do have a lot of little air bubbles, gently tap the side of the bowl with your fingers before you pour into the pan (you can do this with the pan if you didn’t notice the bubbles until you already poured the batter).
The tapping will pop them (you can actually see this). You may not get rid of them all, but the bigger ones are more important to pop. The bubbles seem to be more of a problem with thinner batter and with thicker batter.
The batter
Before you pour the batter into the pan(s), make sure to coat well with something to help prevent your final products from sticking.
There are various ways to do this, depending on your preference. You can use some type of fat, such as oil or cooking spray, margarine, or butter, with or without sprinkling flour as well. Or you can use baking paper.
My personal preference is to place baking paper on the bottom of the pan(s) and then coat with cooking spray, or vice versa. Baking paper can come in individual sheets or in rolls. For round pans, you can buy a suitable size that will fit right on the bottom of the pan. OR you can place the pan on top of the baking paper, trace around the bottom of the pan, and cut to size.
If you use baking paper, you might find that it won’t stay at the bottom of the pan properly while you are trying to pour the batter in, and there are a couple of tricks I use to help. One is to cut the paper so it fits in the pan like a lining, and the other is to wet it so it sticks (the latter is quicker, so I normally use that one).
When making cupcakes or muffins, you can coat or you can use cupcake paper. I have found that with some brands, however, while the paper won’t stick to the pan, it will stick to the cupcake, so you might want to lightly spray the paper before you pour in the batter.
If you are making a layer cake, separate the batter equally into both pans. The best way to do this is to weigh the pans with batter to make sure they are even. Personally, I just eyeball it (which is probably not the best idea unless you have a good eye).
Cooling
You know your baked good is ready when a toothpick can slide cleanly and easily in and out of the baked item (or when the top is a little firm and springy), it can be removed from the oven.
Leave to cool for 10-15 minutes.
If you are going to remove the item from the pan, run a knife around the sides between the cake and the pan. Place a plate or cooling rack over the top and flip.
If you want the top side to remain on the top, you will flip the item over twice (once to remove it from the pan and once to get it back).
For cupcakes and muffins, I recommend using cupcake paper, and after you have used the knife to loosen them from the cup, you should be able to just pop them out carefully using the same knife.
A little about quick breads
A quick bread is any bread that uses a chemical agent to leaven bread rather than a biological one, such as yeast.
Quick breads can be prepared quickly without the need to wait for them to rise.
For example, this recipe is a quick bread as it does not use yeast, but rather uses baking soda as its leavening agent.
Easy Dairy-Free Banana Nut Bread Recipe
Delicious and dairy-free banana bread with walnuts, made without butter or milk.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 3/4 granulated white sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- ⅓ cup oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 4 medium or 3 large bananas, overripe
- 1/4 water (if you prefer a more dense banana bread, leave out the water)
- 1/2 cup ground walnuts, or more as desired
- chopped walnuts (optional, for topping)
Instructions
- Whisk together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.
- Mix in the eggs, oil, and vanilla.
- Add in the bananas and most of the ground walnuts and mix well.
- Pour into a standard loaf pan lined on the bottom with baking paper. Sprinkle the rest of the ground walnuts on top.
- Bake at 350° for approximately 50 minutes or until the toothpick test (slide a toothpick into the middle of the loaf) comes out clean. Personally, I just lightly touch the top with my fingers to see if the loaf is just firm to the touch.
- Remove from oven when ready and let cool for 10-15 minutes.
- To remove the cake from the tin, slide a butter knife around the edges of the cake, between the pan and the cake, and gently turn it over onto a plate. Then flip it back over onto a serving plate.
Notes
* or freeze regular ripe bananas ahead of time and defrost when ready to use. The consistency will be good for this recipe.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
12Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 230Total Fat: 15gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 12gCholesterol: 31mgSodium: 206mgCarbohydrates: 22gFiber: 2gSugar: 5gProtein: 5g