Paleo Plantain Bread (gluten-free)

square slices of grain-free plantain bread stacked on a plate and the top one is smeared with butter and drizzled with honey.

5 from 20 votes

You just need 5 ingredients (and salt) to create this light, fluffy, slightly sweet Paleo Plantain Bread! It's great as a snack or served with a meal.

Prep Time5

Cook Time35

Total Time40

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Servings: large squares

Calories: 130kcal

Author: Don Baiocchi

Ingredients

cooking spray like avocado oil spray
1½ lbs. ripe plantains (yellow with lots of black and as little green as possible), about 3 medium
3 large eggs
¼ cup coconut flour (see notes for alternative flours below)
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Instructions

Heat the oven to 350°. Generously grease an 8x8" glass baking dish.
Trim the ends off the plantains. Using a paring knife, slice lengthwise down each plantain to cut through the peel (and only the peel, don't cut too deeply). Remove from the peels, slice in half lengthwise, slice in half lengthwise again into 4 long pieces, and slice them crosswise into small pieces.
Toss the plantains into the bowl of a food processor. Crack in the eggs. Add the salt, baking soda and vinegar. Blitz until smooth, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl. The batter should be like thick pancake batter. It may have tiny black specks from the plantains.
Scrape the batter into the greased baking dish and slide into the oven. Bake for 30-35 minutes. The edges will be brown and the top should look dry and an even shade of pale yellow. If it looks moist or darker in the middle, it's not ready yet.
Remove from the oven and let cool slightly before cutting.

Notes

The dish can be covered with plastic wrap or the pieces can be stores in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days (refrigeration will dry it out).

To freeze, wrap tightly and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge.

No food processor? You can add all the ingredients to a bowl (sifting the coconut flour) and use a stick blender if you have it. Or mash the plantains with a potato masher (try to get ones that are really ripe, like very black ones) and then stir in the rest of the ingredients, sifting the coconut flour. You can use your spatula to mash the plantains against the side of the bowl to make the batter even smoother.

Don't bother testing with a toothpick because it's been totally useless at predicting when the bread is done every time I've made this.

Want to make plantain muffins? Line a muffin pan with muffin liners and scoop 1/4 cup batter into each one. Bake for 15-18 minutes, until the tops are set and look dry. You should get 9 muffins.

You can easily double the recipe. Just double all the ingredients and bake in a 9x13" pan. Bake for 50 minutes, rotating once halfway through.

To mix it up, try stirring into the batter by hand 4 pieces of bacon that have been cooked until pretty crispy and chopped into small pieces, plus 3-4 thinly sliced scallions. Or stir in 1/2 red bell pepper, diced, and 1/2 of a 4 oz. can of fire-roasted green chiles (the chiles provide enough acid to react with the baking powder so you can leave out the vinegar).

Want to use almond flour instead? Replace the coconut flour with 1.5 cups superfine blanched almond flour, sifted into the bowl. Proceed with the recipe as is. Store in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Want to use cassava flour? Replace the coconut flour with 3/4 cup of cassava flour, sifted into the bowl. Proceed with the recipe as is but check the bread after it's had 25 minutes total in the oven as it might be ready. If not, give it another 5-10 minutes and check again. Store in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Nutrition