RECIPE

Gluten-Free Banana, Coconut and Lemon Loaf

Serves: Makes 1 loaf, enough for 8-10 serves

Prep: 5-10 minutes

Cooks In: 1 hour

Dairy
Free Gluten
Free Kid
Friendly

This is one seriously delicious Gluten-Free Banana, Coconut and Lemon Loaf that everyone will love! It’s so easy to make – simply mash the bananas and mix all of the ingredients together, that’s it.

You’ll find this is the perfect recipe for the kids to make – and I’ve included a video with tips and tricks to help you re-create this at home. This loaf is sweetened with banana and honey, with no refined sugar added, making it a great healthy lunch box idea! To receive my Healthy Food Channel videos and recipes direct to your inbox, subscribe here.

RECIPE

Gluten-Free Banana, Coconut and Lemon Loaf

Serves: Makes 1 loaf, enough for 8-10 serves

Prep: 5-10 minutes

Cooks In: 1 hour

Dairy
Free Gluten
Free Kid
Friendly

Print This Recipe

Ingredients

Print Recipe

coconut oil or butter ½ cup
honey ½ cup
bananas 3 large ripe, mashed
desiccated coconut 2 cups
flour 1 cup (e.g. plain, wholemeal, or gluten-free or buckwheat flour, or ground almonds to make GF)
baking soda 1 teaspoon (check it is gluten-free if required)
free-range eggs 4
lemons 2, zested
salt one pinch

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degC/355 Fahrenheit.

Gently melt honey and coconut oil/butter together in a small pot.

Use a fork to mix mashed bananas, coconut, flour, baking soda, honey mixture, eggs, lemon zest and salt together in a large mixing bowl until just combined, but be careful not to over-mix.

Pour into a greased and lined loaf tin and bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

The loaf will keep (unsliced) in an airtight container for up to 5 days. It also freezes well. A slice of this is delicious warmed up and spread with a little butter!

Nutritional Information Per Serving

Kilojoules

1583

Calories

373

Carbs

32.0 g

Sugar

17.8 g

Total Fat

25.4 g

Protein

5.7 g

Comments ▶

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Sarah Kitchen

Is it baking powder or baking soda?? In the video Nadia says baking soda but recipe instructions say baking powder! I hope it’s baking powder because I have just made it with powder not soda!!
Nadia Lim

Hi Sarah, good spotting. Yes it’s baking powder! But baking soda
would work too (the top would just go browner). Either style of coconut is fine too 🙂
Karen Coghlan

Could you use almond meal or coconut flour?
- Rebecca Tompsett
  
  Yes, because it is not gluten free with normal flour.
  - Karen Coghlan
    
    Yes but are they similar to buckwheat or will it change texture/consistency/how well it cooks?
    - Nadia Lim
      
      Hi Karen, buckwheat flour is the best substitute for GF. I haven’t tried making this loaf with almond meal or coconut flour, i’m sure it would work, however it would make the loaf more dense. Thanks
    - Nadia Lim
      
      Hi Karen, you could use almond meal or coconut flour, however the loaf will be more dense.
- Nadia Lim
  
  if you use coconut flour you will have to use less than the 1 cup stated, as coconut flour absorbs more liquid than other flours. I haven’t tried it with coconut flour yet, but at a guess I’d say use 3/4 cup. You can directly substitute almond meal though
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Angela Cameron

Hi Nadia. What sort of flour could be used to make it gluten free please?
- Nadia Lim
  
  Hi Angela, use buckwheat flour and GF baking powder to make this GF 🙂
- Nadia Lim
  
  Hi Angela, use buckwheat flour and GF baking powder to make this GF 🙂
- Nadia Lim
  
  buckwheat flour is gluten-free, or almond meal. You could also use standard gluten-free flour
Stacey Kearins

Could you take out the coconut, if so would you add more flour?
- Nadia Lim
  
  If you took out the coconut, I’d replace it with ground almonds
Maria Best

Hi Nadia – do you know how much butter 1/2 cup would be in grams – is it about 100g? Thank you.
- Nadia Lim
  
  Hi Maria, yes you’re right – it’s about 100g for 1/2 cup…or 110g to be precise 🙂
Denise Ives

I made this with orange zest today and then used the rest of the oranges in a dairy free smoothie. That loaf is delicious!
- Nadia Lim
  
  Great idea with the orange zest – will give that a go myself!
  Thanks for posting a pic – it looks very moist and yummy!
Kamilla

Got the newsletter this afternoon and just had to make it. I made with coconut oil. It is delicious. It was enough for two cakes actually as I only have one baking tray the second one is in the oven now. It’s very light I love it thank you
- Nadia Lim
  
  Fabulous! Thanks for the feedback. Awesome you got two loaves out of it! 🙂
Khylie

Oh my gosh i loved the banana loaf! Very very yummy got alot of my fb whanau asking for recipe and sharing my pxt told them to sign up to your web page for this fab Recipe and heaps more healthier alternatives!! Beautiful thank you
- Nadia Lim
  
  Thanks heaps Kylie, thats great to hear!
anj

Hi Nadia, if I replaced lemon zest with cinnamon how much cinnamon would I use? Also would I still add the pinch of salt? Thanks
- Nadia Lim
  
  I would use about 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, and yes still add the pinch of salt 🙂
Kristen

Yum just make this and it made 2 loaves my kids loved it
- Nadia Lim
  
  Awesome! good for their lunch boxes 🙂
Helen Dudley

We loved this in our house. Made it with butter first time, will give the coconut oil a go next time. Great to eat something sweet that is healthy!
- Nadia Lim
  
  It’s equally good with either 🙂
Li Ling Ho

Hi Nadia, it’s first time I’ve used your site and tried one of the recipes. I skipped the honey, replaced the coconut oil/butter with rice bran oil, replaced lemon zest with cinnamon, and threw in just over 1/2 cup of blueberries. Yum, will definitely be making this loaf again : ) I really appreciate how you’ve created your recipes. A person can re-make the item at other times without necessarily looking at the recipe again – cooking off the top of the head ; ) P.s. I also tried your banana-mashing on board technique – indeed the fastest, easiest and most fun way to mash!
Sierra Devoto

Just found you. Yay! And I made this bread on the spot. Super simple. I used a mix of sorghum and buckwheat flour and even though the buckwheatis a bit too overpowering for me, I learned that for next time I want to try coconut flour and sorghum instead. Other than that it was a beautiful loaf and it was just too easy. The hardest part was the waiting. I posted a version of your recipe on my FB page and gave you a shout out. Thanks. I look forward to trying more of your recipes.
- Nadia Lim
  
  Thanks so much for your message Sierra. Yay, glad you found me! Great to hear you loved the loaf….here’s to lots more happy cooking! 🙂
Amanda

Hi Nadia. I made your banana loaf today. I think it is delicious but my younger son does not like the coconut. What could I use as an alternative to coconut? Thanks
Kristene

Hi Nadia, I really like the sound of this recipe but am a diabetic. If i put in less honey would i have to replace it with more coconut? Or what is an alternative. To make it suitable for me to eat, I would have to half the sugar content?
jeimmy orellana

Hi Nadia! I have a quick question can I use rice flour? I believe it is gluten-free, also would any of the measurements change due to the texture of the flour? Thank you!
Pri sid

nice one Nadia. it was easy recipe loved by all elders.
Katyemma 45

Aaargggh I misread the recipe and only put 1 cup coconut in..will it still taste OK?
Katirna Morton

Hi Nadia – I am new to gluten free baking and have self-raising gluten free flour – would that be suitable?
Sarah Lorraine Thomson

Just made this loaf this morning – so good!! Thank you for the great recipe!!
Zora Nepia

Hi Nadia, you use soy sauce a lot in your recipes.Can you please tell me which one you use thanx
sartre

Hi Nadia. This had a fantastic flavour but my kids found the texture created by the dessicated coconut too dry and dense. Could soaking the coconut first make a difference? Thanks!
Karen Young

Such a delicious loaf Nadia. I also add a couple of handfuls of chopped walnuts for extra goodness!
Ursula Mill

Hi Nadia, if I wanted to leave out the honey (or reduce the amount), would I need to add more coconut oil/butter?
- Nadia Lim
  
  No, use the same amount of coconut oil/butter, and just reduce to 1/4 cup honey 🙂
- Shontae Belk
  
  I substituted the honey with rice malt syrup to keep the sweetness but to lower the fructose if that helps 🙂
theninameister

Why isn’t there a PRINT option?
- Nadia Lim
  
  you just have to go ‘File’ then ‘print’ as you normally would to print something and the recipe page will print out
theninameister

Well, I don’t exactly know how to answer Nadia’s reply to my HOW TO PRINT question, but here is what happened. Yes, it printed..in teeny tiny print, about 7pt size I would estimate. Something is seriously wrong with this option.
- Nadia Lim
  
  Oh no, that’s weird..might have something to do with what browser is being used. I’ve let my web guy know and have asked him to put in a print button on the recipe pages, so hopefully that helps in the future 🙂
theninameister

Thanks, Nadia! I printed it, then cut/pasted manually onto another sheet of paper and enlarged it on my printer to 160% so now I can read it! Looking forward to making it.
Erin Adams

Hi Nadia is it possible to pop the mixture into muffin tins instead? And does that alter the cooking time at all? ?
- Nadia Lim
  
  Hi Erin, yep you could make this recipe into muffins! You would want to check the muffins after 15 minutes – if a skewer comes out clean, they’re done 🙂
Quyen Tran

Hi Nadia,

I followed the method and measured everything exactly! However the loaf didn’t rise 🙁

I’ve made it before with success…. I don’t know what I did differently.

Could over mixing the mixture or overheating the coconut/honey cause the loaf to not rise?

Thanks,
Quyen
Baljit Bhuller

Hi Nadia ..can i use coconut flour instead of desiccated coconut?Thank you
- Nadia Lim
  
  Hmm not really sorry – coconut flour is highly absorbent so you would have to change the whole recipe to make it work. Coconut flour is best reserved for recipes that were designed for coconut flour 🙂
Ali B

Hi Nadia – the calorie count is shown as 373. Is that per slice and if so, what thickness of slice.
Grace Misich

Hi Nadia, just been reading the recipe for the loaf with cranberries in it. Just wondered about cranberries as they have added sugar. Do you know or anyone know where to get cranberries that don’t have the added sugar. Thanks
- Nadia Lim
  
  Hi Grace, cranberries are so tart that sweetener needs to be added to balance their tartness. Huckleberry in Auckland do sell some that are sweetened with apple juice, but if you want to avoid sweetener all together your best option would be to buy some frozen and dry them out yourself in your oven 🙂
  - Grace Misich
    
    Thanks for that. Thought that would be the case.
Carolyn Pretorius

I have made this a couple of times but decided to do it a bit different tonight and I added a lemon drizzle over the top so yummy!
- Nadia Lim
  
  Ooh great idea Carolyn! I might have to try that 🙂
Donna B

Thank you Nadia, this is just what I was looking for!
- Nadia Lim
  
  🙂 🙂
Quyen Tran

What sized loaf tin did you use?
Katrina Geddes

can I use rice bran syrup to make it low fructose instead of honey?
- Nadia Lim
  
  Yep sure can!