Vegan Gluten-Free Banana Pecan Shortbread (Butter-Free)

I’m currently avoiding gluten and can’t do GF flout blends, so I experimented with oat flour, coconut flour and cassava flour. I used two banana and added a bit more coconut oil and almond milk (I poured enough to get the dough to stick). And followed the rest of the recipe instructions. And WOW these came out amazing and are so simple to make. My family loved them as well. Can’t wait to try these again once I can incorporate GF blend or regular flour!

These were delicious! I made them two different ways and brought them to a vegan holiday party, to work (for my Gf dairy-free boss) and gave some to my gluten free mom. I love banana flavor so I used two medium bananas – I don’t recommend using less as the flavor was spot on, still not overly strong. The first batch was with Trader Joe’s GF flour and the second was with Cassava flour. I was worried there was too much flour while making the dough so I only used about 2 cups. The cassava flour batch I did not have time to make the same day so I refrigerated the dough overnight and baked them the next day – they turned out to be the much, much better batch of the two! They were a little bigger, softer and much more flavorful. I also forgot to add cinnamon to the first batch because it is not mentioned in the recipe steps – I did add it the second batch and it was unanimous that batch #2 was the winner. Hope this helps my fellow bakers!

You cannot tell me these are vegan!! So dang good and easy!! I made a double batch of dough. And ate my little shortbread loving heart out for 2 weeks straight!

Was looking for a vegan cookie recipe for my cookie swap and this recipe seemed simple enough. I went with the coconut oil and AP flour, and it was *chef’s kiss*. Thank you for sharing.

Light delicious cookies. Easy to make. Perfect taste, not too sweet and enjoyable.
Will be in my recipe book. Thank you!

This was easy, good, and makes a lot of shortbread. It would be good for gifts or potlucks (and it’s a great way to use a single overripe banana).

Substitutions: I used a mix of refined coconut oil and vegan butter (Miyoko’s) for flavor, and I used regular all-purpose flour. The only thing I would change next time is to double the pecans.

Made these today, and they were wonderful. I used the 1/2 coconut oil and 1/2 butter combo another person suggested, so they didn’t have too strong of a coconut flavor. My flour was also a combo of three different gluten free flours I had on hand because I didn’t have enough of any one for the recipe. Regardless, they turned out wonderful. Rich, buttery flavor, flakey and melt in your mouth yum.

I cannot stop eating these. So. Very. Good. Can’t wait to try the Thin Mints next!

So delicious! Very easy recipe, with ingredients I always have in my pantry! I’m one of those annoying reviewers that always tweaks recipes but this time I didn’t make major changes. Some reviewers had commented that the bottoms of the cookies were oily? Not sure if that was caused by the coconut oil so I did 1/2cup each of coconut oil/vegan butter. And mine weren’t oily at all. I refrigerated my dough for a while and then rolled it out to 1/4in and cut out heart shapes. I know the recipe calls for 1/2in slices but I wanted a bit of a thinner cookie. Baked for 16min. Perfect golden bottom. Once cooled, I dipped half of each heart cookie into chocolate and sprinkled with pecan crumbs. I wish I could show you a pic! I love these cookies! Thank you so much!

Since committing to a mostly plant-based diet, this has been my go-to recipe for shortbread cookies. For the holiday season, I give them to friends for our cookie exchanges. They’re always a hit. Thank you for a wonderful recipe, Dana!

Add lime to them for a fresh take on them!

These cookies were so easy to make and they are delicious! I opted to sprinkle them with powdered sugar and cinnamon instead of putting cinnamon in the dough. It’s a keeper!

I absolutely love this recipe! It’s very easy to make, very nice delicate flavour, it’s a family favourite! For my 1 yo son, I reduced the sugar to 1/4 cup, substituted one cup of wholemeal flour and added 1 tbsp of flaxseed powder, he loves them. Thank you so much!

Tested this recipe for my Christmas cookie boxes – was not into it. Followed the recipe exactly other than subbing in AP flour and let the dough rest overnight in the freezer before defrosting in the fridge. Was worried about the dough before I froze it because it was super oiliy. When I cut and baked the cookies they looked ok, did not spread but the taste was very meh. Defiantly not cookie box material, can maybe savaged by dipping them in chocolate.

Ok, i subbed butter instead of oil as i didn’t have any and OMG they were amazing- what a gorgeous delicate flavor and so soft. Thank you!

Just made this last night, turned out great! Didn’t have pecans or coconut oil so I replaced those with walnuts and Earth Balance vegan butter respectively. I was concerned at first because the butter + banana + sugar didn’t cream very well, took a lot of elbow grease but once I added the dry and wet ingredients together the dough was flawless.
I took them out of the oven after 24 minutes, the sides weren’t as golden brown as photographed above which resulted in a more chewy almost scone-like shortbread. They’re delicious, I already regret making them because I know they won’t last very long.
I’m looking forward to making this again for friends and family.

These look delicious but I think the metric conversions are off, at least for the flour. I think it’s almost double what’s needed! Unfortunately I realised this too late so my dough was very floury :( Next time I’ll try using cups instead.

Thanks for the recipe.Absolutely delicious.The banana flavour is not too intense and the shortbread is nice and crispy.They are soooo easy to make. And I love the combination with pecans – they are my favorite nuts anyway.Looking forward to all your creative recipes which I am following for many years now.
Happy New Year and hello from Germany!

I am a professional chef. I have made these or slight variations perhaps 6-7 times now for myself. Well for the fam, not for me…not only gluten free and vegan but also type one diabetic sadly. Also for a cookie potluck and they trounced the rest. Knew I’d be late so I aimed to have some less decadent because I knew everyone would be over the sugar overdose by then. Wrote down where they came from so maybe some of them have come here. Great recipe!

My goodness! These are my absolute favourite. This is the second year I’ve made these for Christmas, and they’re delightful. I don’t miss traditional shortbread with these around!

I am not sure if I like the texture or taste.
I made these using the recommended gluten free flour blend and substituted the potato starch for arrowroot flour.

Shaped them into .5 oz balls baked for 10 min took them out of the oven and used the back of a small whisk to poke a well for chocolate thumbprint cookies. Put them back in the oven and cooked for additional 10 min.

When I took them out the first time there was so much oil i had to move them to another tray. Then after taking them out the second time there was less oil but still some around them. The cookies almost seem undercooked. Could be because of the banana.

I don’t understand why the flour doesn’t absorb the oil or maybe its also the banana juices.

I will try next time with less oil and different flour combination.

Thanks for the recipe Dana. The first time I made a big batch, cooked a few, froze a few and had a good cookie supply for awhile. I tired it both with coconut oil and olive butter and the results were nothing short of perfect. Also used macadamias instead of pecans. This is surely my new go to recipe. Xx

The first time I made this recipe, I was using up some brown bananas on a late night cooking spree, and subbed in strong wholewheat bread flour, and organic brown cane sugar. The result is an incredibly chewy, moist cookie with a hint of banana and the moreish goodness that brown sugar gives to everything. I have yet to try the original, but I can tell you that my quick and dirty version was delicious and gone by the next afternoon, so thank you, Dana!! Xxx

I made these with some leftover homemade applebutter (low added sugar) in place of the banana! The flavor didn’t carry through quite as well as I’d hoped – lots of cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg and a touch of clove in the apple butter – but the texture still came out great! I also used half veg shortening and half Earth Balance. I was short on time so instead of freezing and cutting these, I rolled them into small balls, rolled those in cinnamon and sugar and then used a pecan half to squish it down in the center and they came out lovely! Thanks! Your recipes have worked out every time for me even with minor adjustments.

So Yummy! I halved the recipe so I eyeballed a lot of the measurements. I used maple syrup instead of sugar, added a touch more flour and added toffee bits. I cut them a bit extra thick so I baked them longer, maybe a bit too long but I had to contain myself from eating them all in one sitting. Had some this morning and I am loving the crunch and the toffee set super nice. By far my new favorite combo, Banana Toffee! Because it’s store bought Toffee, it’s not vegan, so I will name the MB’s almost vegan Banana Toffee Shortbread. It’s a mouthful, but so are the cookies. Thanks for such a wonderful recipe and for such an amazing site! My BFF and I refer to eat very very very often.

OMG!!! I made them and they are just AWESOME!!!! Seriously.. I’m not gonna make any shortbread with butter anymore. They taste like heaven! I just put 1/2 cup sugar since my banana was very ripe and sweet and they turned out jut perfect. Thank you for this recipe :)

I just made these and they are delish! I used granulated sugar and all purpose flour. So yummy, I know I’ll be making these for years to come :)

Made these once and they were AMAZING. I experimented again tonight with coconut butter instead of oil and I don’t think it worked so well :( Just wanted to give the heads up to anyone who thought to try it as well (hey – butter + coconut seems like a good fit, no?). They are in the freezer now so will update if they end up coming together – but it seems too crumbly to hold up

I just took these out of the oven and had to taste one while it’s cooling. These are so good!!! Mine came out basically looking like the picture but the edges less brown. They’re hard on the outside but softer on the inside. I used bobs red mills gluten free flour mix and earth balance coconut butter because my coconut oil is fully liquid. I did give them about 1/4 inch of room between each cookie and they spread about that much. I want to stock my freezer with a batch of these for when I have company. Perfect with tea or coffee.

I got your recipe through a Facebook friend and decided to make them today.
They’re delightful :-)
Thank you!
:)

I love anything Banana, and I love shortbread cookies so this was a match made in heaven! I LOVED these!! Super simple to make and perfectly crispy and sweet!

My daughter and I were diagnosed with celiac last year, which has made Christmas cookie baking a sad thing. She is also vegan.
These cookies are AMAZING. We love them. They have a taste and consistency like they are full of butter. Wonderful. We used walnuts instead of pecans because I forgot to get pecans. The substitution was delicious.

This is a fantastic recipe and I visited this site because my daughter (vegan) has found many wonderful recipes here. She is coming home tonight for Christmas break and I wanted to make something she could enjoy. I wouldn’t change one thing about this recipe and there’s no reason to even label them “vegan.” I will put them out on my cookie tray along with all the other treats. My oven must be super hot. I only baked them for about 15 minutes to the point where they had a little browning around the edges.

I had a request from my son to make banana shortbread cookies like he remembers when he was young. He is 31 now. A company here in St. Louis that used to be around, Delicious brand, used to make a banana cookie dipped in chocolate. So I made these and dipped the backside in dark chocolate. OMG…so good!

Mine broke apart when slicing, too. It works to press them into a 9 x13 pan and bake them. Like with other shortbread cookies, slice them into squares when they’re still warm. No crumbling after the baked cookies cooled.
I measured the banana, rather than just using a small one. Maybe 1/3 cup isn’t quite enough moisture?
I used mini-chocolate chips instead of nuts.
I used a store-bought gluten-free blend with a pretty strong taste and the taste didn’t mellow after baking. Be sure that you like the taste of your flour before making these cookies because they are mild and won’t mask anything. Am looking forward to trying them again with a better flour mix.

These are excellent! I decorated them with some colored sugar sprinkles for the holidays. Thanks!