Take your banana bread to the next level with the warm and cozy festive flavors of gingerbread. This delicious twist on a classic recipe is perfect for the Christmas season. Gluten-free, vegan, and finished with a delicious dairy-free cream cheese frosting!

How To Make Gingerbread Banana Bread

This recipe starts out like your favorite banana bread, with super sweet overripe bananas, and only one bowl required. I prefer to blend my bananas (and the whole wet mixture, it’s easier and quicker!) instead of mash them by hand, but you can do it either way. This recipe is just a simple process of blend the wet, whisk the dry, combine, and bake sort of recipe. It does take about an hour to bake, and then a little while to cool before frosting, so don’t wait TOO last minute to get it in the oven. You can also skip the frosting and just enjoy a slice warm, it’s equally delicious in my opinion.

Vegan Gluten-Free Gingerbread Loaf Ingredients

This recipe is vegan and gluten-free, so no dairy eggs or gluten are included in the ingredient list. But it comes out SO fluffy and moist, no one in your family will know. You will need:

Bananas. Make sure they are super spotty and sweet for the yummiest gingerbread loaf. Just two medium sized bananas, if your bananas are larger consider using 1 and 1/2 instead. I tested this recipe many times, and too much banana can make the texture a bit squishy, so measuring by weight (aiming for 200g) will be most accurate here.
Coconut sugar and molasses. Our gingerbread sweetening dream team, and with all the natural fruit sweetness from the bananas you don’t need nearly as much as you’d see in a typical banana bread loaf cake.
Almond milk + apple cider vinegar. The old vegan “buttermilk” trick works wonderfully in this recipe, adding extra moisture without any need for butter or oil. Lemon juice would be fine in place of the vinegar as well.
SunButter. Like I mentioned, this recipe is completely oil-free and SunButter is a big part of why that’s possible. It adds just enough moisture that we can skip the oil, and provides extra structure to the loaf too. I used the Organic variety, made with just organic roasted sunflower seeds, but any of their creamy varieties will work here.
Gluten-free flour and coconut flour. This combination is the key to achieving a fluffy loaf cake without eggs and avoiding that dreaded sinking after baking. The gluten-free flour brings most of the cake-like texture and all the binding power, and the dryness of the coconut flour balances it all out to create the perfect crumb and fluff. There is no gluten-free substitute for the coconut flour, but if you aren’t gluten-free you can use all-purpose flour in place of both.
Spices. The classic gingerbread lineup of: ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves. I like lots of spice, you can back off a little for a milder loaf.
Baking powder and salt.

The Dairy-Free Cream Cheese Frosting

Does this delicious sweet-spiced loaf need frosting? No. Is it Christmas so…frosting? Yes! Plus I just love the rich flavor of gingerbread with the tang of a cream cheese glaze of frosting to compliment. I made a super simple cream cheese frosting with dairy-free cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla, and a little orange zest for a citrusy pop. It’s light, it’s bright, and it comes together in about 5 minutes. You could also opt for a glaze like this, or just a dusting of powdered sugar would be lovely too.

Tips For The Perfect Gingerbread Banana Bread Loaf

Don’t over blend the batter. Over blending the wet ingredients or over mixing the batter as a whole could create a gummy texture, so just until combined.
Don’t rush it. This loaf will bake to be beautifully tall and not sink at all, but you have to give it time. Around 60-65 minutes was perfect in my oven, but if there is any doubt about doneness give it 5-10 more minutes. Also note we are baking at 325ºF instead of 350ºF, low and slow is the name of the game with this one.
Bake as a cake or muffins instead. This recipe would work wonderfully in an 8×8″ cake pan or muffin pan too. Your bake time will be 40-45 minutes for a cake or 30-35 minutes for muffins, that is the only way you can really speed up the baking without sacrificing texture.
Let it cool. Sure you can enjoy a warm slice without frosting, it’s delicious that way, but don’t slice it TOO warm or it will smush and ruin the texture. I recommend removing it from the pan pretty quick (1o minutes or so after it comes out of the oven), the airflow on all sides will allow it to cool better and faster.

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