Strawberry Banana Oatmeal Bread (gluten-free, dairy-free option)

Filled with oats, banana, strawberries, and lightly sweetened with maple syrup, this Strawberry Banana Oatmeal bread is the perfect healthy Spring or Summer gluten-free quick bread.

I love banana bread.

It doesn’t get much better than a slice of homemade banana bread with chocolate chips throughout for breakfast.

But… you can make banana bread in so many different ways! I made my Carrot Cake Banana Bread a while ago and absolutely fell in love with it. So, why not make a bread inspired by the classic strawberry banana smoothie?

We’ve been spending so much time outside, that popsicles and smoothies have already been happening a LOT in our house this summer! And strawberry banana is one of my kids favorite flavors. And, you know, I kinda love it too. 🙂

This Strawberry Banana Oatmeal Bread is my classic Banana Bread recipe on steroids. It’s made healthier with the addition of oats and strawberries, and sweetened naturally with only banana and a little maple syrup.

Filled with banana flavor, speckles of oats and pops of strawberries throughout, this bread is such a fun Spring and Summer quick bread.

It’s really simple to make, and only takes a few more minutes than a regular banana bread (to chop up all your strawberries!).

And if you love strawberry and want to amp up the strawberry flavor even more, add some strawberry jam on top! But, if you want to throw a wrench in the whole thing, peanut butter on top is delicious too (don’t knock it till you try it!).

Time to get down to business.

Let’s talk about ingredients.

You can use either gluten-free all purpose flour or regular all purpose flour in this bread. I wouldn’t recommend any other types of flour (no almond flour, coconut flour, etc) as they all act differently with wet ingredients. Be sure your gluten-free all purpose flour is high quality and has xantham gum in it as well.

For your oats, I would recommend using rolled oats (certified gluten-free, if necessary for you). You could use quick oats, but I think rolled oats give the best texture.

I prefer to use coconut oil to keep the bread dairy-free, but you can also use regular old butter or a dairy-free butter alternative too. All three work great. I know some of you like to use less oil/butter, but I would NOT recommend cutting back on the amount of butter/oil in this recipe. It really helps to create the best quick bread texture.

Next, let’s talk sugar: or in this case, maple syrup or honey. I prefer to use my big ole jug of maple syrup for quick breads like this so the bread is more naturally sweetened. If you don’t care about using a more natural type of sugar (and/or want to save a few bucks), you could also use 3/4 cup of brown sugar (or white sugar) instead.

Be sure to use bananas that are overripe with plenty of brown spots. The darker they are, the sweeter they will be (and in turn, your bread!). About 3 huge bananas are needed, or 3 1/2 medium sized bananas.

Last but not least, let’s talk strawberries.

Be sure to use some nice and ripe, juicy strawberries for the best flavor. You can use 1-1 1/2 cups of finely diced strawberries in this recipe; more if you prefer to have more pops of strawberry throughout your bread.

If you need to use frozen strawberries, go ahead and defrost them, pat them dry, and you can use them instead too.

The strawberry in this bread isn’t meant to be an overwhelming flavor, just pops of fresh strawberry flavor in different bites. It’s more natural this way and it’s how I prefer it. Maybe one day I’ll share a full-on Strawberry quick bread recipe… let me know in the comments if you wanna see one! 🙂

As you can see, this Strawberry Banana Oatmeal Bread is pretty forgiving. It’s a super flexible recipe, and easily gluten-free and dairy-free. I’m calling it my new favorite banana bread recipe!

If you love strawberries, banana, and bread… welcome to paradise! 😉 This is the bread for you.

And if you need more bread ideas, check out my Blueberry Swirl Oat Bread, Cinnamon Applesauce Oat Bread, and Lemon Loaf (all gluten-free!).