Best Healthy Banana Bread
This healthy banana bread is whole wheat and naturally sweetened, bakes up beautifully golden brown and is perfectly sweet and moist.
Yield: 12 servings
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups white whole wheat flour (see notes)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 large or 3 regular ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 ½ cups, see notes)
- 1 large egg
- ⅓ cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt (or sub ¼ cup milk)
- ⅓ cup honey
- ⅓ cup canola oil (or melted butter or melted coconut oil or applesauce)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ cup semisweet chocolate chips (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325. Spray a 9x5 bread pan with cooking spray and set aside.
- In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Mix well.
- In a large bowl, mash the bananas then add the egg, yogurt, honey, canola oil and vanilla. Stir well to combine, until no clumps of yogurt remain.
- Add the dry ingredients to the bowl with the wet ingredients and stir just until combined.
- Toss the chocolate chips, if using, with a teaspoon of flour (to avoid them all sinking to the bottom of the bread) then fold into the batter.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake at 325 for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Notes
Flour: You can use white whole wheat flour, whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour or a combination of all-purpose and whole wheat flours. Whatever you have!
Bananas: You’ll need 2 large or 3 medium ripe bananas, about 1 ½ cups worth once they are mashed. If you don’t have enough banana, you can supplement with a bit of unsweetened applesauce. (If you're close though, it's fine to be a little under or over.)
Oil: You can use canola oil or substitute melted butter or melted coconut oil. OR, if you want a low-fat version, you can use unsweetened applesauce in place of the oil. (Or go check out my whole grain banana applesauce bread.)
Yogurt: The recipe calls for plain nonfat Greek yogurt. The 2% or 5% kind works fine too. You can also substitute ¼ skim cup milk instead, if you don’t have yogurt on hand.
Chocolate chips: The recipe calls for ½ cup of chocolate chips, which gives you plenty throughout. You can use ¾ cup if you want a lot of chocolate chips throughout the bread.
Walnuts: You could also add ½ cup chopped walnuts as an add-in if you want a banana nut bread.
How to make vegan-friendly banana bread:
- Use a flax egg instead of the regular egg.
- Substitute soy milk or another milk alternative instead of the yogurt.
- Use maple syrup or agave syrup instead of the honey.
How to make banana bread muffins:
- Follow the banana bread recipe to make the batter.
- Line a muffin tin with paper liners and spray those with cooking spray. (Yes, both! It helps the muffins stay together and not get stuck all over the liners.)
- Divide the batter evenly into the 12 muffin cups.
- Bake at 325 for 20-22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
How to store banana bread:
- This bread will keep covered, on the counter, for up to 2 days.
- After that, as with all baked recipes that have banana in them, I recommend you move it to the refrigerator. The bread will keep there for another 3-4 days.
- You can also freeze the extras. Wrap the bread in plastic wrap then wrap in aluminum foil. (This helps protect it from freezer burn and funny smells in the freezer.) It helps to label the wrapped bread or write on the foil with a sharpie so you know what it is and when you froze it.
- Freeze for up to 6 months.
- Thaw overnight in the refrigerator. Then serve cold or warm a slice at a time in the microwave for about 15-20 seconds. You can toast it too but it works better in a toaster oven than a stand-up toaster since it can get soft and crumbly.
Video
Nutrition
Serving: 1slice | Calories: 178kcal | Carbohydrates: 27g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 16mg | Sodium: 202mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 12g
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