Got ripe bananas? These Flourless Banana Bread Bars are an easy way to use up those bananas with minimal ingredients. No butter needed; just healthy ingredients like almond butter, gluten free rolled oats, and greek yogurt to blend with ripe bananas. The refined sugar free streusel-like topping is optional but delicious if you want to make these into a dessert bar! Dairy free option, too.
I collaborated with my good friends at Bob’s Red Mill for this gluten free Banana Bread Bars recipe post. As always, thanks for supporting the businesses that help to keep the Cotter kitchen grinding out recipes for you!
Got ripe bananas? Got milk? Just kidding. But not on the bananas part, because we’re seriously going to utilize them today, and then some!
You see, if you were sitting across the table from me with a cuppa coffee in hand, I’d probably ask you first, how’s your day? And then second, tell me what you’ve been totally HOOKED on lately. Food and recipe wise that is! Then I’d share my latest “you must try these” food obsession. By the end of our coffee talk a chain of recipe swaps would have occurred.
My friends, these flourless banana bread bars is that type of MUST TRY recipe.
I may not be a true baker, however, I am a PRO when it comes to short cutting gluten free baking. And flourless baking for that matter. I hope you can appreciate that. Scrappy Chef Cotter at your service. (More tips for gluten free baking at the end of this post).
Now, about this healthy (healthier) banana cake-like bar with no flour or oil needed thing a ma jig. .
YAS!
I’ve made these banana bars four times in the past month, and 4 different ways! With a topping (streusel), without topping for no sugar added, with extra banana (to make these bars more dense), with ground almonds (almond meal), and with almond flour (versus almond meal) for a more cake like texture. Decision fatigue anyone?
So yes, you can make them five different ways but today we’re going with … drumroll please.
A flourless banana bread recipe in snack/dessert bar form.
Minimal ingredients. Easy peasy. Addicting.
That being said I’ll share all my notes of how to dress up these bars for dessert and more in the recipe notes. Sound good? Bob’s Red Mill has just about everything you need for all banana bread bar versions. Thank goodness!
Ingredients for FLOURLESS BANANA BREAD Bars:
- Gluten-free rolled Oats from Bob’s Red Mill (for quick version, try out Bob’s Red Mill gluten free oat flour). Gluten Free rolled oats make a delicious superfood breakfast, yes. But did you know they also make for an amazing flour base? Just use a food processor or blender to grind your rolled oats into a flour. Perfect for flourless baking!
- Almond meal (natural almond flour) – Almond meal is different than almond flour in that Natural Almond Meal (flour) is ground from whole almonds, skins and all. Almond flour is made from blanched almonds. Both perfect for paleo and gluten free, grain free baking. Both almond meal and almond flour work well with this flourless bar recipe. Texture will vary, but all in all the result is delicious. Note: If you can’t get your hands on pre-made Almond Meal, you can certainly make your own. Except, why would you when Bob’s has it ready and waiting for you…. just sayin (wink wink).
- Greek yogurt or non dairy yogurt/milk – Greek yogurt is a great substitute for oil or butter in this banana bread bar recipe. Plus it’s lower in fat and high in protein. If you can’t tolerate dairy, then swap the yogurt for non dairy milk or yogurt! Baking times will vary just a wee bit.
- Bananas – ripe as can be! Which you can mash in with the batter and slice for on top.
- Lastly you could make these bars with no stir sunflower seed butter or nut butter. No oil or butter needed
Optional mix ins and toppings.
Option one: No sugar added. Totally delicious but warning, they are not too sweet. So be sure to add a lot of sliced banana on top or mix into the batter if you are going to make these without sugar.
And option two? Haha, total opposite! Refined sugar free CINNAMON STREUSEL TOPPING made with oats or Almond flour. Mix in ½ c coconut sugar to the banana bread batter and add a cinnamon streusel like topping on top. Bam! A flourless Banana Bread dessert bar has been made.
Before we jump to the recipe, let’s go over a few more recipe tips.
FLOURLESS GLUTEN-FREE BAKING TIPS:
- Use a starch to help bind. For instance, here we used gluten free oats (grounded) and banana.
- Increase your leaveners. Instead of ¼ tsp, we are using close to 1 tsp.
- Lower baking temperature to 350F or sometimes even 325F if you are baking without eggs. Altitude baking not taken into consideration. Oye, that’s just trial and error in my house. Haha!
- Be patient, not every oven works the same. Sometimes gluten free baked goods will take longer or less time to bake. I always check about ¾ way through suggested cooking times.
Okay Okay, we are done going bananas over BANANAS. But you get what I’m saying here, right? You’re gonna want to save this recipe. Whether it be for a brunch snack cake, breakfast to go, or a dessert bar with refined sugar-free topping. Spring and summer brunch holidays are upon us, so might as well start collecting those easy desserts.
PrintFlourless Banana Bread Bars (Dairy Free Option)
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 8-9 1x
Description
Healthy and Easy to make Flourless Banana Bread Bars (Dairy Free Option)
Ingredients
Flourless Banana Bread Bars
- ½ cup gluten free rolled oats to grind into a flour Or Gluten free oat flour for quick option
- 1 egg
- ½ cup liquid egg whites
- 4 oz plain Greek yogurt (see notes for dairy free option)
- 2 medium ripe bananas (one for batter – mashed) and 1 small banana to slice on top
- ½ cup almond flour or almond meal (finely ground almonds with skin). NOTE – Almond flour will bake faster. Almond meal will make the bars a little more moist so it will take longer to bake. Both delicious!
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- OPTIONAL sweeteners- ½ cup coconut sugar or honey/maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ cup creamy natural almond butter (or other nut butter of choice)- no stir works best or almond butter that’s slightly melted for a smooth consistency.
Optional Cinnamon streusel – if using prepare first:
- ½ – ⅔ cup almond meal or almond flour
- ¼ cup coconut sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon sea salt
- 2 Tablespoons naturally refined coconut oil, solid and chilled (butter may be substituted)
- Extra sliced/chopped banana to mix in if desired
Instructions
Optional Cinnamon streusel – if using prepare first:
- In a medium bowl, use a pastry blender or fork to combine the chilled coconut oil with the almond flour, sugar, cinnamon, and sea salt. Mix until a crumbly mixture forms, toss with extra banana slices (if desired) then spread on top of the batter before baking.
Directions to prepare Bars:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease or line an 8 x 8 cake pan, set aside.
- Place Gluten Free rolled oats in a food processor or blender and grind until fine flour is formed. Texture is important. Make sure you grind oats into a powder like flour. Alternatively, you made use gluten free oat flour.
- Beat the egg and egg whites together. In another bowl, mash/blend your banana and yogurt together. You can do this in a blender, bowl with hand mixer, or a stand mixer. In a separate bowl, Mix your flour, almond meal or almond flour, baking powder, and optional sugar.
- Combine your yogurt and banana mixture with your flour mixture and stir until well combined. Gently stir in the creamy no stir nut butter and cinnamon and then fold in your egg mix last. Do not over mix.
- Pour batter into brownie or cake pan 8×8, add streusel topping here (if using) or skip to baking if you’d like no topping.
- Bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. If using almond meal, you will need to bake an additional 10 -15 minutes. Check progress at 30 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let cool before slicing/serving. Slice and serve.
- Storage – Freezer friendly (in foil or storage container) for up to 5 months. Store in refrigerator in closed container for up to 1 week.
Notes
- NOTE – Almond flour will bake faster. Almond meal will make the bars a little more moist so it will take longer to bake. Both delicious!
- For dairy free option, replace yogurt with non dairy yogurt OR 4 oz. non dairy milk and 2 tablespoon gluten free oat flour.
- Nutrition below estimated without sugar and topping added
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 25
- Category: snack/dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 199
- Sugar: 10.9 g
- Sodium: 101.9 mg
- Fat: 8.5 g
- Saturated Fat: 1.8 g
- Carbohydrates: 19.9 g
- Fiber: 2.8 g
- Protein: 11.2 g
- Cholesterol: 26.7 mg
Keywords: banana bread, gluten free, healthy, flourless, dessert, bars, snack, banana cake, bread
Well, our coffee talk has come to end. But you still must tell me, what’s your latest MUST TRY recipe? Maybe add banana bars to that list… soon!
Cheers!
Keep up with the compassionate, fun-loving Bob’s Red Mill on social media. They are full of gluten free inspiration! Facebook, Twitter Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest
LC
I made a batch of these bars this week sans topping and sugar. Like Sara, it took double the time to cook, yet was still slightly soft in the middle with the edges almost getting too brown and crunchy. I used non-dairy yogurt, almond flour, a mixed nut butter, and my food processor couldn’t really get the oats to a super fine consistency. I also don’t know where I went wrong, but for sure, there is a missing step between Step 3 and Step 4. My attempt just did not look crumbly and nice like the photo. It was just a bit too wet inside. Another problem with making this is all the extra egg yolks left over and what to do with them. I ended up making a lemon pasta salad for the first time with the yolks, and that turned out really well. Maybe an expert baker out there can add more tips? I want to try this again as it is so healthy, but it seems strange that mine just took so long to finish baking.
★★
I’ve been this bars more times than I count & this is what I would suggest… Make sure your oats are processed very well! I do this in my Vita-mix before I add anything else! I actually add in my yogurt, banana, eggs & nut butter into the blender so it gets mixed really well. (I have a struggle with Nut butter if I’m not using an electric mixer ha) I would make sure you’re not using too much banana, as that could make the batter too soft, ALSO if you’re adding extra sweetener? Like honey or maple syrup since that will add to the “wet”. I use full-fat Greek yogurt and sunflower butter & I’ve never had any issues, so sorry to hear that they didn’t work for you! I would give it a try again!!
Really yummy! I used half the sugar and only put bananas on top. I also used overripe bananas and it would have sufficed to make our treat sweet but my hubby is not complaining ?
★★★★★
Great idea! I love that you made this healthier! Thanks Michelle
This recipe didn’t work out so well. They are edible, but no where near the consistency and texture as the pictures shown. They took almost double the time to cook and the directions for the non-dairy option were a little confusing. It seemed to indicate that if I wasn’t doing the non-dairy option then I needed to add some more oat flour to thicken the batter. I thought that was an odd place to put additional ingredient requirements. Why would you be looking for baking directions for the regular version in the non-dairy notes section?
Granted, I’m not a great baker, so this was probably my error. It just didn’t turn out as fabulous as the picture.
Also – I don’t have a fantastic blender. I should have skipped the headache and just bought oat flour. I think this is where I may have went wrong????
★★
Oh no! I’m so sorry to hear that. I wonder what happened. ANd I’ll be sure to fix the instructions so that make sense. What’s easiest, to put dairy free option all in notes? ALl you do is swap the yogurt for almond milk. Or you can use non dairy yogurt. Did you use almond flour? Did you grind your oats to a very fine consistency?
I feel like streusel-like topping is never optional; always a must.
Agreed ?
Love that you made these gluten-free!
And I just love you!
This looks so yummy and healthy!
★★★★★
THanks Rose!
Love how these are healthy!! I could use one… or two of these for a snack right now!
★★★★★
I love banana bread and these bars are simply genius!
★★★★★
Let me know if you try them Nat!
Those look so incredibly awesome!! Wish I had a few for breakfast this morning.
YAAAAY, a perfect, delicious treat recipe for me to use up extra almond flour! Thank you! 🙂
★★★★★
These look just delicious Lindsay! I’d definitely do the streusel! Yum!
love these flourless banana bread bars!!!