This whole grain healthy banana bread recipe is so moist and sweet, everyone is always shocked to find out it’s actually good for you!
What makes this the best healthy banana bread?
- You will love the soft, fluffy texture.
- The loaf packs in up to two cups of ripe banana, which is more banana than many other homemade banana bread recipes.
- It’s one of my most popular recipes, with over 300 positive reviews from readers who’ve tried it. So you know the recipe must be good!
- Oil free, egg free, refined sugar free, and dairy free options are all included.
- If you have overripe bananas sitting on the counter and no idea how to use them up, this low calorie banana bread is the perfect solution. Leftover slices freeze well, and the banana quick bread is great for breakfast meal prep.
Plus, can we talk about the taste again? You’ll think you are eating banana cake. My entire family is obsessed and asks me to make the recipe at least once a month. And it’s so easy that I’m happy to oblige.
You may also like this Chocolate Banana Ice Cream
I have tried so many different banana bread recipes before, until I found this one 5 months ago! I have never looked back! My husband loves it.
It comes out soft and moist, not dry at all & if you eat it the next day, which is a real challenge, it tastes even better! Love it!
Step by step recipe video
Above, watch the full banana bread recipe video
Banana bread health benefits
Whole grain. The quick loaf provides over 15% of the RDA for fiber per serving.
High in vitamins and antioxidants. The banana bread is high in potassium, manganese, selenium, vitamin B6, and vitamin C.
Low calorie. There’s no oil required, and each slice is just 100 calories!
To lower the oil without sacrificing moisture or taste, it uses four to five whole mashed bananas, giving the banana bread recipe the perfect bakery-style texture without a ton of empty calories. Yogurt adds even more softness without weighing the bread down.
And though I’m normally not a fan of oil free baking, this bread is definitely an exception. You can easily omit the oil entirely, and it will still turn out amazingly soft and delicious.
Naturally sweetened. While many traditional banana breads contain at least a cup of refined sugar and over half a cup of butter, this lightened up healthy banana bread recipe cuts way back on the things you don’t want and relies on fruit for natural sweetness.
Thanks to the extra banana, the bread needs just half a cup of sweetener for the entire recipe. This is around half of what is called for in popular banana bread recipes from Martha Stewart, Food Network, Rachael Ray, and Betty Crocker.
Special diet friendly. The banana bread can be both vegan and gluten free. It uses no eggs and is low sodium, cholesterol free, low fat and very low in saturated fat.
Want more low calorie snacks? Make Applesauce Muffins or Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Healthy banana loaf ingredients
The recipe calls for just a few basic ingredients: bananas, flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, optional yogurt, oil or milk of choice, sweetener, and pure vanilla extract.
Bananas: Choose ripe bananas for the best taste. Look for skins that are at least partially brown and spotted. Fully brown bananas are actually perfect here. Do not throw out your brown bananas! They are great for banana bread.
Flour: You can use all purpose flour, whole grain spelt flour, all purpose gluten free flour, or whole wheat pastry flour. Oat flour and whole wheat flour both yield a denser loaf than I personally prefer, but many readers have written in to say they’ve tried and love the whole wheat banana bread. So it’s completely your choice.
The recipe box below includes an almond flour option. I do not suggest coconut flour, because it will give you a dry and crumbly loaf.
Finally, you can replace up to half a cup of the flour with protein powder to turn it into a high protein snack recipe.
Milk or oil: I love the rich, buttery flavor of coconut oil. Vegetable or avocado oil work as well. Or you can make the recipe with milk instead of oil. As a vegan, I like almond milk.
Sweetener: Choose any all purpose liquid sweetener, such as pure maple syrup, agave, or honey. You only need half a cup for the whole loaf!
*If you’d like to use sugar or a granulated sugar free sweetener instead, substitute 2/3 cup of sugar for all of the liquid sweetener. Increase the milk to 3/4 cup.
Vanilla: Buy high quality pure vanilla extract, which adds warm notes of butter and caramel without the artificial aftertaste you’d get from imitation vanilla flavoring.
Optional ingredients
Yogurt: For a high protein loaf, swap half a cup of banana for Greek yogurt, plain yogurt, or even nondairy yogurt. Or try flavored yogurts, like strawberry or blueberry, to create a fun new flavor variation.
Chocolate chips: But when are chocolate chips optional, really?
Nuts: To make a homemade banana nut bread with healthy fats, I love stirring in a handful of chopped walnuts, pistachios, almonds, or pecans. These can be raw or toasted, and there’s no need to measure.
Other add-ins of choice: The bread is easy to customize by swirling in a half teaspoon of ground cinnamon or a pinch of cardamom or ginger. Or try adding half a cup of large or mini chocolate chips, raisins, cranberries or dates, or shredded coconut.
For even higher protein, try this Protein Banana Bread
How to make healthy banana bread
The banana bread is super simple to make, and leftovers can be sliced and frozen for an instant breakfast or healthy snack any time you are craving banana bread.
- Start by preheating the oven to 350° Fahrenheit or 176° Celsius. Grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan with fat free oil spray. Alternatively, line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper. Set this pan aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the mashed banana, yogurt, sweetener, milk or oil, and pure vanilla extract. Whisk with a fork or spatula.
- Stir in the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and optional chocolate chips and cinnamon (or other add-ins of choice) until just evenly mixed.
- Smooth the banana bread batter into your prepared baking pan. Place the pan on the center rack of the preheated oven, and bake for forty minutes.
- When time is up, allow the quick bread to sit in the turned-off oven for an additional ten minutes. This will help the recipe to firm up without burning the top.
- Check for doneness by inserting a toothpick into the center of the loaf. It should come out mostly clean, and the loaf should appear lightly golden in color. If your recipe needs more baking time, simply turn the oven back on and continue to cook, checking every five minutes.
- Let cool. Both the taste and texture are better the next day, so I like to loosely cover the cooled banana bread and refrigerate overnight.
- Serve for breakfast, snack, or even dessert. The bread is delicious plain or topped with almond butter, cream cheese, or Homemade Nutella.
- Refrigerate leftovers for three to four days, or slice and freeze leftover banana bread for up to three months.
Katie’s tips for best results
Follow the recipe. The first time you make the banana bread, it’s important to follow the instructions and ingredient amounts to a T. This allows you to see how the recipe should turn out. Then you can make changes to subsequent batches to learn how the modifications may alter the results.
Calibrate your oven. Many ovens (including my own) are not calibrated correctly, so when the control panel shows a certain temperature, it’s not actually the true temperature. I recommend buying an inexpensive oven thermometer to ensure your banana bread does not come out undercooked and gooey in the middle.
Do not overmix the batter. Stirring the banana bread batter until just evenly mixed prevents it from developing too much gluten or pushing air out and yielding a tough, dense, or rubbery loaf.
Use gram measurements. This is my #1 baking tip if you want accurately measured, consistent baked goods every time. Food scales are available for just about ten dollars and also make recipes much easier to clean than measuring cups.
Healthy Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup mashed banana (360g)
- 1/2 cup yogurt or additional banana (120g)
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup or honey (120g)
- 1/3 cup oil or milk of choice (60g)
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract (10g)
- 2 cups flour (240g) (or try this Almond Flour Banana Bread)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (optional)
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)
Instructions
- 1. Preheat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit (176° Celsius). Grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan, then set the pan aside.
- 2. Whisk the mashed banana, yogurt, sweetener, milk or oil, and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl.
- 3. Stir in the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and optional chocolate chips and cinnamon until just evenly mixed.
- 4. Smooth the batter into the prepared pan, and bake on the center rack of the oven for 40 minutes.
- 5. Turn off the oven and allow the healthy banana bread to sit an additional 10 minutes in the turned-off oven. This step helps the middle to firm up without browning too much on top.
- 6. Insert a toothpick into the center of the loaf. It should come out mostly clean. (If yours needs more time, simply turn the oven back on and continue cooking, checking for doneness every five minutes.)
- 7. Let cool, then slice and enjoy for breakfast or a healthy snack. Or loosely cover the cooled loaf with a towel and refrigerate overnight. If you can wait, the taste and texture are even better the next day!
- 8. For leftovers after one day, refrigerate in a covered container for up to four days or slice and freeze for up to three months.
Video
Notes
More healthy breakfast and snack recipes
I’ve made this banana bread several times now and it always comes out a perfectly moist cake texture with just enough sweetness. It definitely needs longer in the oven than the time stated – I usually leave it to bake for at least 45 minutes, usually up to an hour. Otherwise it would be quite gooey in the middle. I use wholemeal flour, don’t bother with the extra sweetner or choc chips, and choose coconut oil and greek yoghurt. I also add a handful of desiccated coconut, chopped walnuts and raspberries. I freeze pieces and grab one when I feel like a healthy and filling snack – highly recommend!
When you use frozen bananas should you strain tnem to remove the excess liquid? And should you decrease the amount of sugar or liquid in the recipe?
I’ve done it with frozen bananas before with great results, no need to change anything.
Hi Kate,
Not sure what happened but the middle of my loaf won’t cook. I followed your directions and I placed it back in the oven, I thought it was ok and wrapped it overnight. This morning when I cut into it the middle is STILL uncooked! I put it back in the oven…15 minutes later and it still isn’t cooking. Anyone have any ideas? I think this beautiful loaf might be wasted.
somehow an extra egg makes a big difference, I have made this recipe twice–the first time, perfect result with an extra egg, however the second time the bottom looks gummy, and not cooked properly. (I baked at the bottom rack both times).
next time, you could try to place it on the bottom rack, and if it’s not cooked, could use the lower fire mode for extra bake time, I would suggest checking every 10 minutes interval.
Hi, baked goods should always be baked on the center rack unless a recipe specifically says something different. Hope that helps!
I find it hard to cook properly when placed on the center rack
I think it sounds like there’s something wrong with your oven. All baked goods should be baked on the center rack to ensure proper baking. Unfortunately, baking on the top or bottom rack will yield results that are not evenly cooked. (This is in general, not just for Katie’s recipes.)
it’s just the top is easily browned every time I bake on the center rack, except muffins and cheesecake. My oven is a whirlpool steam oven, which has the function of digitally displaying the internal temperature of the oven, so the temperature should be accurate
I’m not sure what to say except to repeat that if your baked goods are coming out unevenly cooked, it’s most likely due to not cooking them on the middle rack. It has nothing to do with temperature. It has to do with the heat not being able to get as evenly around the baked good. I’m not making this up – any baking site will say that baked goods should be cooked on the middle rack. But of course you are free to keep baking as you wish. I’m just trying to help because you mentioned that you were frustrated it cooked unevenly and I was sorry to hear that. I’m not trying to be contentious. I know it can be hard to tell from written words. Just trying to help!
There are no eggs in this recipe, so adding any egg is adding an “extra” egg. I’m not sure how anyone is making this successfully; it has zero binders in it. Flour alone doesn’t hold a ton of wet stuff together. Perhaps it’s paramount to add many eggs to this recipe so it has any hope of baking into something resembling bread. I have made banana bread so many times and I never have had this issue I had with this.
I’ve baked this most delicious bread dozens of times now as I make it almost every week to have as my breakfast. I do bake it on the center rack and have never used egg. I follow the recipe (using options of white flour, maple syrup & almond milk), other than I use less salt & chocolate chips; I add walnuts; & I do not add the 2 Tbsp extra sweetener. It does take finding the just right combination of baking time -and- let sit in the oven with the door closed/heat off time. Initially mine was underdone. I was hesitant to keep it in longer as the top seemed to be browning a bit and I feared it’d be overdone & dry. With experimentation, I’ve found that- for my oven- cooking the 40 minutes but keeping in 15 minutes temp off/door closed before checking instead of 10 mins. works well. Sometimes it’s perfectly done at that. But I often need to turn it back on for another 5 minutes and re-check. I don’t have it down to an exact science but I’ve become more confident in determining when it’s done now and I couldn’t love this recipe more if I tried!! It’s so worth any effort it’s taken to figure out the timing for my oven!
made it twice now, I have discovered that 3/4 tsp salt is way too salty (second time minus a dash of salt, and still too salty!) also the first time I added an egg to the recipe, and it was cooked perfectly moist, however, the second time, because I don’t have any eggs in the fridge, so i followed the recipe to the t, and somehow I don’t know why it is undercooked, the bottom is not cooked through, looks kind of gummy (I baked it at the bottom rack, in both times), but when I taste it, the texture is okay.
I like the use of chocolate chipping as topping on the bread.
I made this with white flour, agave syrup and oil+milk combo. The batter was light coloured but the baked result is very dark. It is too sweet with the added sweetener in it, and it is quite squidgy. Is it supposed to be squidgy? My one-year old baby likes it though.
I’m not really sure what squidgy means, but if it means that the bread is too soft or moist, just leave it out loosely covered overnight and it should firm up more!
Hi – sorry if this is a silly question but what kind of oil are you supposed to use in this recipe?!
This recipe is a KEEPER. So moist, I added some chopped walnuts and almonds, so healthy.. This will be my go to banana bread..
Looks insane. Can I use whole spelt instead of white spelt?
Yup!
How does this come out using homemade out flour vs just regular white flour? Im just curious the difference in consistencies? I’ve made this several times (always with white or wheat flour) and it’s always gone the same day, we love it!
I just took a flat of mini muffins out of the oven. These are simply delicious! I used 3 bananas that were browning. I subbed in a 1/2 C of Vega-Plus protein powder and used 1 1/2 C all purpose flour. I also only used 1/4C maple syrup. I did use 4g of Stevia (powdered form that is a mix of stevia leaves and erythritol). I opted for avocado oil because I want the extra fat in the muffins. And I used the PC brand plain greek yogurt.
My 8 yr old just had one and her eyes bugged out of her head. She quickly (and kindly) offered to eat all them because I am eating Keto.
I can’t wait to see how these are tomorrow and on the third day too!… (I tastes part of one 🙂 Yummy!)
I also included the cinnamon, and I may have been a little bit relaxed when eyeballing the vanilla as I poured it in 😉
I also included the cinnamon, and I may have been a little bit relaxed when eyeballing the vanilla as I poured it in 😉
This is my first attempt at making banana bread and I’m thinking this won’t be the last! I have just tried a piece (couldn’t wait a day) and it was delicious!
I did have to bake it much longer than the initial baking time (15-20 mins) as it was still rather gooey inside… although I think reducing the amount of milk (used instead of oil) may help for next time.
Also, next time I think I might omit the extra sweetener altogether – I think it would be perfectly sweet enough with just the 3 overripe bananas and 1/3 cup of honey I used. Especially if it’s even sweeter the next day!
I used wholemeal flour and vanilla flavoured natural yogurt as that’s all I had to hand (will probably use unsweetened Greek yogurt next time), but I think they’ve worked well.
Safe to say, if no one else wants to eat it, I’ll be happy with that! – in fact, I hope they don’t! 😉
I have made these recipe at least 30 times and I looove it. I have made it with different types of flour, usually a mix of what I have left. I have also made it with yoghurt, but lately I am replacing the yoghurt and the milk/oil with approx o,8 cups of full cream coconut milk and it is great. Sometimes I add some seed (chia, pumpkin, sunflower) and its just the perfect versatile recipe to get rid small amounts of stuff in the cupboard (nuts, seeds, coconutflakes, dried fruits…)
Lovelovelove:)
I loved this recipe. I’m definitely going to try it since it has all healthy ingredients. I love bananas and I’m always making recipes using fruit.
This is the best banana bread! I followed the directions (used Greek Yogurt instead of something completely dairy free) and everyone who had some loved it! They didn’t even know it was “healthy”! Definitely making again.
I made this recipe a few weeks ago and didn’t read the part about letting it cool completely. I let it cool in the pan for about 10 or 15 minutes and then removed it and it collapsed on itself. The ends were edible but not the middle. It was very depressing and a bit embarrassing. I am usually very good at baking. I made it again today because I liked the flavor, and I left it in the pan to cool completely. The middle still sunk in but not as much as last time. What am I doing wrong? It puffs up nicely in the oven. I used 1 cup of white flour, a 1/4 cup whole wheat flour, 1/4 coconut flour and 1/4 cup rice flour, just trying to cut down on gluten. Could this be the reason?
Unfortunately using flours not called for in a recipe will always be an experiment, especially coconut flour. Different flours react differently in recipes, and it’s why Katie stresses in some of her posts that the only ones she can vouch for are the ones she’s tried!