Beau and I are usually pretty solid communicators. You know that old adage of communication being key? Very that. In our six years together, we’ve developed a knack for talking to each other the right way, and have learned that good communication can look a lot of different ways. Sometimes it’s, “Babe, I know you’re telling me something important but I’m stress spiraling right now and I can listen better in ten minutes.” Sometimes it’s something sweet but simple: “Hey I ate your leftovers”—”Babe, what the fuck?” And sometimes there’s a little slip-up, a total lack of communication, and you end up both making a grocery run for the same bananas, and you come home to a hilariously massive amount of bananas?

You may not think that’s a big deal, but we’re a staunchly banana-oriented family. I know that sounds like I’m talking more about politics or religion, but our banana intake is pretty serious. We do at least one protein smoothie each per day (sometimes more), and that’s usually a banana each time. So our normal grocery run is like… a million bananas or something. So when we both ended up buying our normal supply of bananas we all of a sudden had two million bananas we had no idea what to do with. But then “no idea” turned into “an idea” pretty quickly, because everyone on Instagram said to make banana bread—which, duh, so here we are, we’re making banana bread.

(Now I’ve typed banana so many times that I have to quickly vent that every time I type banana I always have to slowly check whether I’ve typed to many na’s or not. Did I just type bananana? I don’t know or care anymore.)

So in getting this recipe ready, I learned we apparently love banana bread almost as much as bananas themselves? Like, LOVE. Like, really, this is the third banana bread recipe we’ve posted to this blog. (Here’s the tahini & chocolate banana bread and the banana bread with madeira glaze from the blog archives). I don’t think I knew we stanned banana bread so hard, but here I am typing up a third banana bread recipe, wondering… am I okay? Is this necessary? Do I care? No? Okay.

This one is different than those ones, so it deserves its own post! That’s because this one is paleo, and that’s because I’m easily convinced by the hype of fad diets. Ever since I did the Whole 30 this past February, I’ve been trying to eat mostly paleo—I know, I know, I’m always trying to eat some sort of new way. In November it was vegetarian, and last August it was keto. I know that makes me sound wishy washy but really I just fucking love eating, and following rules.

Recipe below! Enjoy.

Paleo Banana Bread

makes one standard loaf

(slightly adapted from this recipe—I skipped the shredded coconut and added a little more honey)

3 over-ripe bananas, mashed
3 large eggs
1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
1/3 cup honey (we’d recommend always using local honey)
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups Bob’s Red Mill Paleo Baking Flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon + extra to sprinkle on top, if desired
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 ripe banana, sliced in half lengthwise (for the top)

Preheat oven to 350 F and lightly grease and line one standard 9” loaf pan with parchment paper.
Mash the over-ripe bananas in a large bowl. Whisk in the eggs, melted coconut oil, honey, and vanilla extract. Mix until combined.
In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt and mix evenly. Slowly add dry ingredients to wet ingredients 1/2 cup at a time, whisking to combine.
Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and top with sliced ripe banana and cinnamon, if using.
Bake for 30 minutes uncovered. Cover with foil and bake for another 30 minutes covered (until a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean)
Let cool in pan before slicing and serving.

Notes for this recipe

Bananas — when I say over-ripe, I really do mean quite ripe. You’ll want a bunch of brown and black flecks crowding the banana peel. This is because the more ripe the banana is, the better the texture and sweetness levels for banana bread. The bananas we show in the photos above are about the minimal ripeness you want. Mind you, if your bananas are entirely black, oh bb that banana is rotten throw it away.

Paleo Baking Flour — we love this paleo baking flour blend from Bob’s Red Mill, but if you don’t have access to it locally you can order it online or try your hand at making your own paleo baking flour blend (though no promises it’ll work in this recipe). The BRM mix blends almond flour, arrowroot starch, coconut flour, and tapioca flour, which is pretty standard for a paleo baking flour mix.

Parchment Paper — whenever we make anything in a loaf pan, the simple trick is to lightly grease the pan with oil and then cut a sheet of parchment paper that will fit into the pan with an extra “lip” of paper on each side. This lip will give you handles to easily lift and remove the loaf once it has been baked.

My favorite way to have this banana bread was with a little spread of ghee butter and a sprinkle of some sea salt on top. Let me know how you enjoyed it, and thanks for stopping by!

xoxo Matt