These healthy oatmeal bread rolls are a quick and easy bread recipe. They are just 3 ingredients and don’t need any yeast, wheat flour, eggs, added sugar or oil. They take only about ten minutes to prepare.
I’ve had so many requests for a healthy bread made without any wheat flour. So here it is. These rolls taste like healthy banana oatmeal bread rolls. They are soft and have just a hint of sweetness from the bananas. The bananas also give the rolls some flavor so they can be enjoyed plain or with your favorite spread.
Ingredients
- Oat flour
- Baking Powder
- Bananas
Oat flour: Oat flour is oats that are finely ground to a flour consistency. If you don’t have oat flour, you can also make your own by processing rolled oats in a food processor or high powered blender (one that can mix just dry ingredients like a Vitamix) until the oats become the texture of flour. If you want to make these rolls gluten-free make sure to use oat flour or oats that are labeled gluten-free.
Baking powder: Make sure to use aluminum-free baking powder. Because these rolls are made with only oat flour, they need more baking powder than a recipe using wheat flour. If you use a baking powder that isn’t aluminum free you may feel like they have a metallic aftertaste. Baking powder is used to give the bread rolls rise.
Bananas: You will want to use ripe bananas, which are lightly mashed down. It’s okay to still have some chunks of banana. You don’t want your mash to be too liquidy because that will require you to add a lot more oat flour which will make your bread dense and dry. If you don’t want to use bananas, I have a version that uses yogurt.
How to Make Oatmeal Bread Rolls
The oat flour and baking powder are whisked together until evenly mixed. The oat mixture is then added to the mashed bananas until you have a dough. The dough is divided into smaller pieces, rolled into balls and placed onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. The rolls are then ready to be baked.
Bread Texture
These rolls have a soft and chewy texture though they are a little heavier than your typical rolls made with white flour. They are best eaten the day of. If you have leftovers, I recommend storing them in an airtight container, keeping them in the fridge and heating them up before eating.
More Bread Roll Recipes
- 3 Ingredient Healthy Bread Rolls
- 3 Ingredient Healthy Apple Bread Rolls
- 2 Ingredient Emergency Bread Rolls
3 Ingredient Oatmeal Bread Rolls
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups (231 g) oat flour
- 1.5 tbsp (18 g) aluminum free baking powder
- 1 cup (237 g) mashed bananas
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- Add oat flour and baking powder into a medium mixing bowl. Whisk until evenly combined. See notes for how to properly measure the oat flour.
- Add mashed bananas to a separate large mixing bowl. Add in the oat flour mixture, reserving 1/4 cup. Use a spatula to mix the bananas and the oat mixture until oat flour is fully incorporated. Your dough should be very sticky. Add in a little of the remaining flour, 1 tbsp at a time, mixing until just incorporated, until the dough is dry enough that you are able to break off a piece of dough and shape it into a ball without the dough completely sticking to your hands. You don't want to overmix because the dough will become too sticky again.
- Divide dough into 9 pieces. Roll one piece between your palms to form a smooth ball. Place onto prepared baking mat. Repeat with remaining dough pieces, spacing bread rolls 2 inches apart. I recommend washing your hands in between each ball to prevent the dough from sticking to your hands. If desired, you can add a few quick or rolled oats on top of each bread roll before baking.
- Bake bread rolls for about 18-20 minutes or until bread rolls look cooked and tops are lightly golden brown. If you are unsure if the bread is cooked, you can cut one open to test.
Notes
- I added a few quick oats on top of each dough ball before they baked for appearance. It's completely optional.
- When measuring the oat flour, do not directly scoop measuring cup into the flour. Instead, spoon the flour into the measuring cup and then level off the top with a knife. This will prevent you from overpacking the flour which would result in dense and dry rolls.
- Make sure that your mashed bananas are not too liquidy. They should be mashed but with some small chunks. See photo in post for reference. If your bananas are too liquidy, your dough will be too sticky and you will need to add more oat flour which will make your rolls dry and dense.
- The rolls are very lightly sweetened with bananas. If you prefer sweeter rolls you can sprinkle some sugar on top before baking or add some sugar to the dough.
- These rolls are best eaten the day of. If you have leftovers, I recommend storing them in an airtight container in the fridge and heating them up before eating.
- If you don't have oat flour you can make your own by processing rolled oats in a food processor or high powered blender until it becomes the consistency of flour.
- Make sure to use aluminum free baking powder.
Nutrition
The nutrition information provided are only estimates based on an online nutritional calculator. I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a professional nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.
Do you have any recipes using gluten free flour.
We have quite a few gluten-free recipes you might like!
Can applesauce be used instead of bananas?
You could try our recipe with yogurt or try our apple rolls.
Hi Helen, aside from making into a roll, can I bake them in the muffin paper cups ? Thank you.
We haven’t tried that, but the baking time may need adjusting. Let us know how it works!
Super good. My question is how long will these last in the fridge? I know they are best the day of but I’d really like to prep ahead and I don’t want to be eating expired bread.
Excited to try with applesauce.
If you want to make them ahead, we recommend a day ahead and then keep them in an airtight container in the refrigerator. You can warm them up before serving them. They will dry out the longer they sit in the fridge, so keep that in mind.
Thank you so much!!! Do you have a recipe like this one that does include eggs? My allergy baby just passed eggs and would love to add more protein to this recipen for him 🙂 thank you!!
We don’t have an oatmeal bread rolls recipe with egg but we have a lot of other bread recipes that do. We hope you take a look!
Do these have a banana flavour? I am looking for a neutral or savoury breadroll easy recipe without eggs, gluten or nuts.
You might like our oat bread made with yogurt.
Yummy and sooooo easy, love it
I’m so glad you love it!
Can you make this with applesauceor sweet potatoes or other fruit puree?
It should work, though the amount of flour will likely need to be adjusted.
The only thing I didn’t do is use a bake sheet. I put the balls into a muffin tin sprayed with pam. The texture seems a little off, did the mufin tin do that? I am afraid to eat them.
What was different about the texture? We haven’t tried using a muffin pan so it’s hard to say what might have gone wrong.
Super dry. I couldn’t even add half the amount of dry ingredients and it was like sawdust. I wonder if there’s a misprint in the recipe?
There is no misprint but you may have added in too much oat flour. When adding the oat flour, if you are measuring with cups, make sure you spoon the oat flour into the cup and then level off. Do not directly scoop the cup into the oat flour because that will result in too much flour.
Kirbie’s recipes are brilliant! Makes baking a pleasure and can be done with ease when you have a busy life. Thank you Kirbie.
thank you for the kind words!
Beautiful and easy
Thanks so much!