This healthy banana bread recipe made with sweet ripe bananas, a touch of cinnamon, and other delicious, wholesome ingredients is the best you’ll ever eat. And, it only uses one bowl-so less cleanup for you!
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Out of all the banana recipes I’ve shared on Organize Yourself Skinny, this healthy banana bread recipe is my favorite. I’ve made it hundreds of times! Anytime I have ripe bananas, this homemade banana bread is on the menu.
Reasons You’ll Love This Quick Bread
- Prepared with less sugar and healthier ingredients. Ripe bananas create a delicious sweet and moist banana bread reducing the need for extra sugar. White whole wheat flour adds whole grains and fiber, and Greek yogurt adds protein along with moisture.
- Comes together quickly using simple ingredients. All of the pantry ingredients go into one bowl.
- The most delicious banana bread. Each slice is moist and filled with banana flavor! Trust me; your entire family will light up when the smell of banana bread is in the air.
- It can be made ahead of time and frozen. Go ahead and make a few loaves to slice up and freeze for a quick healthy snack to grab as your running out the door.
FAQs
Traditional banana bread includes white sugar, white flour, and lots of butter. This healthy banana bread recipe reduces the amount of sugar and switches out more nutritious ingredients while still keeping a moist, flavorful banana bread.
So, this easy healthy banana bread recipe can find its way into your weekly meal plan.
The secret to a super moist and flavorful banana bread is to use ripe bananas. Ripe bananas are a darker yellow with brown spots all over the skin. When a banana looks like it only has about 1-2 days of life left, that’s when you know it’s ready for banana bread.
The moisture from the bananas creates a tender, moist bread that has the most fantastic banana flavor.
After your banana bread has cooled down and sliced, make sure to wrap each slice tightly with food-safe plastic wrap. That way, it traps the moisture, and it doesn’t dry out the bread.
You can also store slices of banana bread in an airtight container to keep moist.
Walnuts are delicious in banana bread. Or use your favorite chopped nuts. ½ cup of nuts is the perfect amount for this recipe. For a more indulgent banana bread, stir in ½ cup of chocolate chips.
You can! I’ve also seen others add a layer of peanut butter (or any nut butter, really) onto their slice as well. Of course, be mindful of the added fat and calories when adding nut butter.
If you’re eating banana bread for breakfast, it pairs nicely with a small yogurt bowl. My girls love that combination.
That’s mostly up to you. You don’t HAVE to refrigerate it as long as you store the banana bread properly by wrapping it tightly in plastic wrap or storing it in an airtight container.
However, I’ll keep banana bread in the refrigerator during hot and humid months to keep it fresh longer.
You sure can! One of my favorite things is baking a few loaves of banana bread and then freezing individual slices to have for snacks.
Substitutions
This healthy, banana bread recipe is easy to adapt. I’ve made this a variety of ways using different flours, sweeteners, yogurts, and add-ins. My advice is to follow the recipe the first couple of times you make it and then make it your own.
Substitute oat flour – When I want to prepare a gluten-free banana bread recipe, I’ll substitute oat flour for the white whole wheat flour and flaxseed meal. I use a total of 1 ¾ cups oat flour.
Oat flour creates a slightly more dense bread, but it doesn’t change the flavor much. I haven’t used almond flour, spelt flour, or other specialty flours, so I can’t speak on whether or not those would work.
Use different flavored greek yogurts – Plain greek yogurt is my yogurt of choice with baking because it’s low in sugar. If I’m out of plain greek yogurt or want to add more flavor to the banana bread, I’ll use vanilla or other flavored yogurts.
Substitute coconut oil for butter – I prefer to use butter in this healthy banana bread recipe. It gives the bread a delicious subtle butter flavor and helps it brown nicely.
If you don’t want to use butter, then ⅓ cup of melted coconut oil is a healthy substitute.
Substitute coconut palm sugar for white and brown sugars – Coconut palm sugar is one of my new favorite sweeteners. I thought about changing this entire recipe to include coconut palm sugar because I love the flavor.
But, I opted just to keep it simple basic white and brown sugar.
Anyway, a total of ½ cup of coconut palm sugar in place of both sugars is all you need to create a sweet caramel-flavored that is scrumptious.
If you haven’t tried coconut palm sugar yet, I recommend picking up a bag next time you’re out grocery shopping.
Thrive Market is an online natural and organic grocery store where I purchase many specialty, gluten-free, or organic baking items. They offer many of the same products found at Whole Foods but lower prices. If you want to learn more, then read my Thrive Market Review.
Supplies
- Bread Pan – I’ve owned this Wilton bread pan for years; it’s a favorite.
- Mixing Bowls – This set of Pyrex mixing bowls are inexpensive and get the job done.
- Cooling Wire Racks – this is a nice set.
- Hand mixer – this is the one I have from Cuisinart.
- Whisk – If I don’t use a hand mixer, I’ll use a whisk to blend all the ingredients. I love this OXO whisk set.
Healthy Banana Bread Ingredients
Alright, let’s get to this recipe! Here is a list of ingredients you will need to make homemade banana bread:
- Mashed ripe banana – remember, the riper the banana is, the sweeter and more moist the banana bread will be.
- Plain Greek yogurt – my favorite Greek yogurt brand is Sigi’s.
- Unsalted Butter
- Large eggs
- Pure vanilla extract
- White granulated sugar
- Dark brown sugar
- White whole-wheat flour
- Flaxseed meal
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Cinnamon
How to Make Easy Healthy Banana Bread
I mix the eggs, mashed banana, Greek yogurt, sugars, and vanilla into a bowl. The recipe calls for 1 1/2 – 2 cups of banana, and this is usually 3-4 bananas depending on the size.
I slowly stir in the melted butter. I’ve also used 1/3 cup melted coconut oil in place of the butter, which works too!
Here’s where the one-bowl recipe comes into play.
Instead of mixing the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and then mixing it with the wet ingredients, I placed all the dry ingredients on top of the wet.
Now, mix it up again. You don’t want to over mix because that causes the bread to get tough. Just mix until the dry ingredients are combined with the wet.
Pour the bread batter into a standard loaf pan.
Bake in a 350 oven for 55 minutes. The cooking time can vary slightly depending on your oven. My advice is to insert a toothpick or sharp knife into the middle of the loaf, and the bread is done when there are only crumbs and not batter.
Be prepared for your house to smell AAAMAZING as the best healthy banana bread recipe bakes. Honestly, I love to make this just for the smell.
I cut this bread into eight thick slices and then cut those slices in half. In total, you will have 16 pieces.
I learned this little trick from my mom. It’s easier than trying to cut 16 skinny slices of banana bread- that’s near impossible!
Healthy Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 -2 cups mashed ripe bananas about 3-4 bananas
- ⅓ cup plain greek yogurt
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup white granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
- 1 1/2 cups white whole-wheat flour
- 1/4 cup flaxseed meal
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large mixing bowl, mix together mashed banana, greek yogurt, vanilla, sugar, and eggs.
- Slowly stir in the melted butter until blended.
- On top of the wet ingredients, place the flour, flaxseed meal, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Mix until all of the ingredients are combined.
- Pour into a standard loaf pan, sprayed with cooking spray, and bake for 55 minutes or until the center is cooked. You can check this with a toothpick or sharp knife. If no batter sticks to the toothpick then it's done.
- Let the bread cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let it finish cooling on a wire cooling rack.
- Cut into 16 pieces and serve.
Video
Notes
How To Store This Healthy Banana Bread
This best banana bread recipe freezes excellent too! So, if you are planning to stock your freezer with healthy snacks, then put this on the list to make. This bread can be made entirely ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator all week or in the freezer for up to 3 months. I recommend wrapping in plastic wrap or placing it into a freezer bag.Nutrition
How To Store Banana Bread
This best banana bread recipe freezes excellent too! So, if you are planning to stock your freezer with healthy snacks, then put this on the list to make.
This bread can be made entirely ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator all week or in the freezer for up to 3 months. I recommend wrapping in plastic wrap or placing it into a freezer bag.
How is this healthy? So much sugar!
I found this recipe in a cooking light cookbook. You could reduce the sugar if you like.
To reduce SUGAR, you can use apple sauce or Truvia. Also I use CHIA/FLAX meal and Cut one of the Bananas up into slices and push it down into the loaf. I also don’t use WHITE whole wheat flour, just the regular stuff and for added protein, use unflavored or vanilla (PLANT BASED) Protein Powder. I use an extra egg white and a little extra liquid when I add Protein powder. There are ways to get away from the sugar, you just have to play with it. I think a 1/4 cup of Truvia and Vanilla Protein Powder could be just fine because Bananas are SWEET already and this is a REALLY Yummy POST Workout Complex Carb Snack.
White whole wheat flour is just a from different variety of wheat. Your typical whole wheat flour is made from red wheat. White wheat is the same as far as nutrition goes. It is still whole wheat. The flour is sold by King Arthur Flour.
My thoughts exactly!
reduce sugar to 1/2 cup brown
I just made this and it’s amazing!
So glad you like it! It’s one of my favorites.
I am prediabetic so I used 4 bananas and barely 1/4 cup of truvia sugar baking blend and no other sweetners. Its good, very dense and heavy and spongy must be the lack of sugar, I like it I thank you for the recipe.
This recipe has taken the place of my old favorite banana bread- we LOVE it!
That’s great! I’m so glad you like it!
I would love bread and that is the reason I’m here. Thanks for sharing your
Making this for the first time (had extra ripe bananas I didn’t want to waste). Got distracted and forgot the sugars! It was in the oven for 10 minutes when I realized my mistake. I quickly took the loaf pan out of the oven, added the sugars into the “loaf mixture” and popped it back in the oven now for the rest of the baking time. Did I ruin it?
Well, I guess it’s not ‘ruined’ – Tried an end piece – not sure it tastes as it is supposed to (but I mixed the sugar in the middle – LOL). Seems to be ok, but I’ll have to make it again when I’m not “distracted baking” and see if it tastes any different. 🙂
My family would LOVE this! Yum!
What a healthy breakfast it is ! Thank you so much !
How long would you recommend cooking if I decide to make this in mini loaf pans?
When I make muffins or mini loaves I typically cook for about 20 – 25 minutes.
I don’t have flaxseed meal. How can I adapt this recipe without the flaxseed meal?
I do have oat flour and quinoa flour – will either of those work?