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One of my favourite dessertsof all time are brownies. What’s not to love - they’re basically small chocolate cakes! I actually usually prefer cakey brownies, but these Gluten-Free Banana Brownies totally have my heart!
The concept behind this brownie recipe actually came to be by mistake. When I was making the mousse for my No-Bake Oreo Mud Pie, I actually forgot to throw in butter when melting the chocolate chips using the double boiler method! What was I to do with all that molten chocolate? I knew already that I was going to have to re-make the mousse, but I really didn’t want the chocolate to go to waste. As I describe in my Make Cooking Fun!! free motivational guide to inspire your creativity in the kitchen, being resourceful and using up what you have in your pantry can take you very far! I dumped the molten chocolate into my KitchenAid stand mixer and threw in some flour, the butter, sugar, and bananas that were totally overripe. I threw the batter into a loaf pan and baked. Voila! I had a brownie banana bread in a jiffy, and it was delicious! No waste here! I know that this was actually a banana bread, and to be honest I went into this recipe thinking I was going to make banana bread… but I just love brownies so much that that’s what my heart wanted to do!
Is there a special someone that has brownies near and dear to their heart? Is this your first time making brownies? If any of these are the case, I totally recommend you try out my Gluten-Free Banana Brownies recipe as part of your Live to Cook one-month challenge! You can start your cooking journey for free by signing up to my newsletter with my free resources and all my new recipes delivered right to your inbox!
Don’t forget to watch the video to see exactly how these incredible Fudgy Banana Brownies come together! If you’re not already, I’d appreciate it if you subscribe to my YouTube channel, and be sure to hit the bell button so you get notified when my video recipes go live with the written ones! Let’s get baking!
Why You’ll Love Gluten-Free Fudgy Banana Brownies!
These Gluten-Free Fudgy Banana Brownies are going to be some of the best brownies you’ve ever had - guaranteed! Here’s why you need to bake yourself a batch right now!
- Easy to make: This banana brownie recipe only requires a couple of ingredients and a few steps in the actual procedure. It’s perfect to make when you want to do some Sunday baking but don’t have too much time on your hands!
- Gluten-free: The selling point of this recipe! For those with a gluten intolerance, this is perfect. Even if you can tolerate gluten, it’s going to taste incredible and you can serve this to everyone at a party, all of your family members, share it with your neighbors, whatever you want to do!
- Perfect sweetness: The bananas totally shine and really add some excellent natural sweetness here! Additionally, we’re combining white sugar and brown sugar for just the right touch to balance out the bitter cocoa powder.
- Super chocolatey: If you’re having a brownie then you expect lots of chocolate, right? This has just the perfect amount of chocolate with the cocoa powder and chocolate chips both in the batter and on top! I can’t resist those molten chocolate chips when you take the brownie out of the oven and serve it fresh!
- Fudgy and moist: These brownies are just so fudgy and there isn’t a hint of dryness! This is thanks to the bananas! You won’t be able to stop at one because they’re just so addictive and satisfying!
How Do You KNow when the Gluten-Free Banana Brownies Are Ready?▼
The brownie should be set in the middle and a toothpick inserted in the middle should come out with a couple moist crumbs. Be careful not to pierce through a chocolate chip on the top of the brownie, that will give you false-negative results.
How Can I make the Gluten-Free Banana Brownies cakier? Fudgier?▼
A cakier brownie usually has more flour, lesser fat, more eggs while a fudgier brownie has lesser flour, more fat and lesser eggs. Also, cakier brownies usually makes use of baking powder while fudgier brownies use baking soda.
You can experiment with these amounts and find your perfect texture. For me, it is kind of a mix of cakey and fudgy.
Can I Use Regular All-Purpose Flour For Gluten-Free Banana Brownies?▼
Yes, you can if you don’t have a gluten intolerance or you’re making this for folks who don’t have one. The measurements won’t be affected if you choose to use regular all-purpose flour instead. The only difference is that because the gluten-free flour I’m using contains xantham gum, I needed some water to thin out my brownie batter. You probably won’t need this if you’re using regular wheat flour.
Can I use Another Type of Gluten-Free Flour Instead?▼
I would not recommend you use another type of gluten-free flour, such as chickpea flour, coconut flour or almond flour. These react with liquid differently from the gluten-free flour I’ll be using, so you won’t be able to follow the ratios I’ll be giving - even with the extra water to thin out the batter. When it comes to baking, you must be precise. So for best results, I recommend you follow the exact gluten-free flour I’ll be using.
Can This Gluten-Free Banana Brownies Recipe Be Dairy-Free Or Vegan?▼
If you really need these banana gluten free brownies to be vegan, simply replace the butter and ensure that your chocolate chips are dairy-free. To replace the butter, you can use olive oil, vegetable oil, or coconut oil. However, keep in mind that coconut oil will give off a mild coconut flavour to your brownies. If you’re fine with that, then go for it!
On the other hand, veganizing these gluten free banana brownies may be a little more challenging, as I can’t guarantee you’ll get the exact same results as I have with eggs. In order to replace the eggs, you could make a “flax egg” by using a mixture of flaxseeds and water. Full disclaimer that I’ve never tried this before and I can’t guarantee how well this would work. You can refer to this recipe for more information.
Tools Needed for the Best Gluten Free Brownies with Banana
Ingredients for Gluten Free Banana Brownie Recipe
Scroll to the bottom of this post for the FULL PRINTABLE recipe card which shows all ingredient quantities and to save the recipe for later! The recipe card will also allow you to scale the recipe based on how many brownies you want to make and based on the size of your baking pan. I’ll be using a 8”x8” brownie pan.
- Flour: The gluten-free flour I’ll be using here is by Bob’s Red Mill and it’s the 1 to 1 Gluten Free Baking Flour. I like to use this flour because I don’t have to modify the quantities of other ingredients in this recipe. I will be adding water to thin out the batter since this flour still produces a thicker batter with the same amount of flour used in comparison to regular flour, but no other modifications are needed. Use this flour for best results in terms of taste and texture for your brownies too.
- Salt: This is optional, but I strongly recommend you do add a bit to bring out all of the flavours of the other ingredients in the brownie batter.
- Water: As needed to thin out the batter. You may not need water if you’re using regular all purpose flour.
- Vanilla extract: Don’t we all love the aroma of vanilla? I think it’s essential to add a splash to truly add another hint of decadence to your brownies!
- Cocoa powder: Use any cocoa powder you have. We’ll be adding it to the batter and onto the buttered pan to prevent our brownies from sticking. More details in the tips - this actually works!
- Baking powder: I like to add baking powder to my brownies to get some good height in them!
- Instant coffee: You can use instant coffee or espresso powder, whatever you have on hand. If you’re sensitive to caffeine or want to enjoy these brownies for a midnight snack, then you can even opt for a decaf option - that’s actually what I did here!
- Eggs: At room temperature.
- Chocolate chips: My favourite part of this recipe! Use semi-sweet chocolate chips so that your brownies aren’t too sweet, and instead they’re rich and chocolatey.
- Butter: Softened at room temperature. We’ll use butter both in the batter and to grease up the brownie pan. If you’re adding salt to the batter, go with unsalted butter. If you only have salted butter on hand, you most likely won’t need to add extra salt.
- Sugar: granulated white sugar is used here, and it’ll be used to make our brown butter.
- Brown sugar: Combined with regular sugar into our batter.
How to Make the Best Gluten Free Brownie Recipe
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a square or 8"x 8" pan and brush room temperature butter all over the pan. Then add a coating of cocoa powder to create a thin layer on the pan.
Mash the bananas until mostly pureed and set aside for now.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.
In another bowl, combine the butter, eggs, sugars, and vanilla extract.
Add the wet mix to the dry mix and combine until mostly together. Ensure there are no dry spots of flour, lumps are okay.
Divide this mixture between two bowls and in one of them, add the cocoa powder . Depending on the gluten free flour, xanthan gum may thicken the batter. Add water as needed to the chocolate mix until it has a thick smooth consistency, like the banana mix. Then, mix in the chocolate chips and espresso powder.
In the other bowl, add the mashed bananas.
Spoon the chocolate batter into the prepared pan and then add the banana batter.
Using a fork or skewer, mix together and swirl. You can mix completely or leave it swirly. Add additional chocolate chips on top.
Bake the brownies for 30-35 minutes on the middle rack, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached.
Remove the brownies from the oven, and cool them slightly before serving.
Enjoy!
Variations of Gluten-Free Banana Brownies
- Switch up the chocolate chips: For some fun, you could swap or mix and match white or dark!
- Chopped nuts: If you want to add a little more I recommend almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, or pistachios.
- Other garnishes: You could do sea salt flakes, coconut flakes, or a drizzle of Caramel Sauce, Cream Cheese Glaze, peanut butter, or Chocolate Mocha Syrup.
- Sweetener: If you want to keep the sweeteners natural, you can use maple syrup or honey instead of the white sugar.
Tips for the Secret to Fudgy Brownies
- Tap the baking sheet to ensure you have the batter evenly distributed and there are no air pockets.
- The amount of swirling and mixing of the chocolate and banana mixture will affect the texture and the appearance of the brownie. So have fun and experiment with what works best for you.
- Your brownies have finished baking when you put in a wooden skewer or a knife down the middle of your brownies, and it comes out with some moist crumbs. Check more than one spot, if you hit a chocolate chip, the skewer/knife would appear wet.
- Allow your brownies to completely cool down slightly before slicing and serving.
How to Serve Gluten-Free Banana Brownies
- Whipped cream: Homemade or from an aerosol can.
- Vanilla ice cream
- Berries
- A warm beverage: Dirty Chai Latte, White Hot Chocolate, or Maple Bourbon Latte (for adults please!)
- A cold beverage: Milk, Chocolate Cream Cold Brew, Iced White Chocolate Mocha
Can These Gluten-Free Banana Brownies Be Made Into Muffins?▼
Sure, definitely use this batter to make some awesome chocolatey gluten-free muffins! Simply pour the batter into a muffin tray instead! I need to try that out!
Storing Gluten-Free Banana Brownies
In the Fridge
Ensure your Banana Brownies are completely cool before storing in the fridge. You can slice them and keep the slices in an airtight container or keep them in the pan tightly covered with plastic wrap. Your brownies should stay fresh in the fridge for about a week.
In the Freezer
If you want to save the gluten-free banana brownies to have for an instant dessert whenever you’ve got a sweet craving, then you can certainly freeze them! Again, ensure they’re tightly wrapped or in an airtight container. You can keep them in the freezer for three months.
I recommend you allow the slices to defrost naturally in the fridge. However, if you’re like me and decided in the moment to enjoy the brownies, then microwaving for 30 seconds to a minute will be just fine!
More Incredible Chocolate Treats!
- Gluten-Free Chocolate Crepes
- Coffee Pancakes with Mocha Syrup
- Chocolate Espresso Cheesecake Overnight Oats
- Espresso Brownies with Peppermint Mocha Cream
- Double Chocolate Hazelnut Oatmeal
- Chocolate S’mores Stuffed Cookies
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