You might not believe this is a healthy banana bread recipe but it is! And it’s still moist and delicious. With a few changes to the flour, fats, and sugars used you won’t feel as guilty eating this healthy banana bread in the morning.
Many times when I hear the words, “healthy” I immediately think it can’t be as good as the “unhealthy”. Rarely does my brain go to “moist and delicious”. And I definitely don’t string all those words together.
Enter this banana bread. Yes it’s healthier and it tastes amazing!
This year I’ve made some baking goals that has to do with baking healthier- less processed, more wholesome recipes. Here is the first of many! So here’s to resolutions in January, healthier eating.
How did you make this a healthy banana bread?
To make this healthier I made a few adjustments to the original banana bread recipe. I used the recipe for the banana bread from my new cookbook that’s out and turned it into a healthier version. And I don’t think you will miss all that “unhealthy”-ness.
Flour: The original recipe called for all purpose flour but I swapped that out and used white whole wheat flour instead. You can read more about this type of flour below. If you don’t have this flour on hand you can also try subbing 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 all purpose.
Oil: I cut the oil and used half oil and half applesauce. It cut down the fat, but also kept it super moist.
Dairy: I made the switch from sour cream to greek yogurt in this banana bread. This helps lower the calories and increases the amount of protein in the overall bread. Love that. Plus it’s an easy 1 to 1 swap!
Sweetener: The original bread recipe used your typical white granulated sugar. I’m trying to cut back on how much sugar I use and find different ways to bake. Even if it’s swapping out the processed white sugar and using an organic cane sugar. But for this bread I cut down the amount of sugar and the type used. I use half honey and half brown sugar (organic to be exact). Honey is NOT a 1 to 1 swap though. You have to always use less honey than you would for the sugar and reduce the liquid in the recipe. I’ve also gone to using raw honey, which has other great potential benefits such as providing antioxidants and helping with digestive issues.
What is White Whole Wheat Flour?
When I first heard of white whole wheat flour, I thought maybe it was manufactured from whole wheat flour and it was too good to be true.
In my types of flour post, I talk all about white whole wheat flour. In addition to everything else you would want to know about flour! But here is the short and sweet version…
Turns out white whole wheat flour is milled from a hard white winter berry. Traditionally, all purpose flour and wheat flour comes from a hard red winter wheat berry. And just like traditional wheat flour, white whole wheat flour uses the whole winter berry making it 100% whole wheat.
The difference is that the bran of the white winter berry is lighter in colored, sweeter in taste than traditional wheat flour. So to me that means you get the best of both worlds. Better texture comparable to using all purpose flour but all of the nutrients like using traditional wheat flour.
You can substitute white whole wheat flour for your all purpose flour in any of your recipes. One tip given from The Kitchn, is for brownies it’s best to let them rest overnight before serving giving a chance for the bran to soften.
But we’re talking banana bread so let’s move on…
How Do You Make Healthy Banana Bread?
Step 1: Combine your dry ingredients
Set your sifter over a mixing bowl and then measure and add the white whole wheat flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. And set aside. Sifting is necessary to remove any lumps and aerate the mixture to help create a light fluffy bread.
Step 2: Mix The Wet Ingredients
In a second mixing bowl you want to combine your wet ingredients – brown sugar, honey, eggs, oil, apple sauce, mashed bananas, vanilla extract, and greek yogurt.
Step 3: Fold In The Dry Ingredients
Now using a spatula, fold in the dry ingredients. Just don’t overmix! Overmixing will cause the gluten in the flour to form and too much gluten creates a tough bread. So stop mixing once the last streak of flour is incorporated.
Step 4: Place In Pan
Then you want to pour the batter into your greased 9×5 inch loaf pan and bake! Bake on a middle rack in a pre-heated oven. And bake for 60-70 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
How Do You Make Banana Bread Moist?
The key to making moist banana bread is using very ripe bananas. The blacker the better when it comes to the bananas! Not just flecks but really black.
Tips On Making Banana Bread:
- Use Ripe Bananas. You want to make sure you use very ripe bananas. Bananas that have lots of black specks. The blacker the banana is the sweeter it will be. I actually like to freeze my bananas when they have gotten too ripe to use later for banana bread. If you use frozen bananas, then let the bananas thaw before using them.
- Mash first. Mash your bananas before adding them to the mixing bowl. I do this by hand with a fork since I have used frozen bananas they are very easily mashed. You could also use a pastry blender, potato masher, or a hand mixer.
- Measure your flour accurately. I use the spoon and level method. You can learn how to measure your flour in this post.
- Careful to not over mix. I like to use a spatula and fold in the dry ingredients by hand. You want to stop mixing once they have been incorporated. Too much mixing = too much gluten forming. Gluten is what will give a bread its chew, but for a banana bread you want less gluten to form. So we can accomplish that by making sure we don’t overmix!
What Can You Put In A Banana Bread?
I kept this recipe simple. But you can definitely add in chocolate chips, dried fruit, or nuts. For this recipe I would recommend 1 cup of any of those.
If you decide to in nuts, you really want to make sure to toast them before adding them to the recipe.
You could also try adding in almond butter for a fun new healthy twist!
Is this healthy banana bread low in calories?
I’ll be perfectly honest, no not really! But “healthy” to me doesn’t mean diet food. Healthy to me means using real wholesome ingredients – such as whole wheat flour and raw honey. This isn’t paleo, keto or any other of those. So yes it does have calories in every single bite. But I love knowing I’m feeding my body something good if I’m going to indulge a little!
More Quick Bread Recipes
- Quick Jalapeno Cheddar Bread
- Blueberry Muffin Bread
- Blueberry Banana Bread
- Whole Wheat Irish Soda Bread Recipe
Tools Needed To Make This Banana Bread Recipe:
- Loaf Pan
- Kitchen-aid mixer – you could use a hand mixer but a stand mixer will make quicker work of this bread, and save you the arm workout.
- Sifter– Sifting your dry ingredients is key in making this banana bread light and fluffy.
- Dry measuring cups and spoons
If you like this recipe, the be sure to leave me a comment and star rating below!
Healthy Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups (254 g) white whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon table salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ cup honey
- 1/2 cup (107 g) light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup applesauce
- 1/4 cup (60 mL) vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 1 ½ cups (340 g) very ripe bananas (about 4 medium)
- ½ cup (114 g) greek yogurt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup walnuts, optional- toasted and chopped
Instructions
- Preheat and prepare pan. Preheat oven to 350oF. Spray a 9×5” loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray or grease with butter and set aside.
- Combine dry ingredients. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
- Mash bananas. In a small mixing bowl, mash bananas with a fork. Set aside.
- Combine wet ingredients. In the same mixing bowl with the bananas, whisk in the sugar, oil, applesauce, eggs, and vanilla extract and stir until combined.
- Combine wet and dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix together with a spatula until just combined. Stir in walnuts, if using.
- Bake. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and bake for 60-65 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow the bread to cool completely in the pan set on a wire cooling rack. Store the bread, and any leftovers, covered at room temperature for 2 days, or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Use Ripe Bananas. You want to make sure you use very ripe bananas. Bananas that have lots of black specks. The blacker the banana is the sweeter it will be. I actually like to freeze my bananas when they have gotten too ripe to use later for banana bread. If you use frozen bananas, then let the bananas thaw before using them.
- Mash first. Mash your bananas before adding them to the mixing bowl. I do this by hand with a fork since I have used frozen bananas they are very easily mashed. You could also use a pastry blender, potato masher, or a hand mixer.
- Measure your flour accurately. I use the spoon and level method. You can learn how to measure your flour in this post.
- Careful to not over mix. I like to use a spatula and fold in the dry ingredients by hand. You want to stop mixing once they have been incorporated. Too much mixing = too much gluten forming. Gluten is what will give a bread its chew, but for a banana bread you want less gluten to form. So we can accomplish that by making sure we don’t overmix!
Emily says
Best whole wheat banana bread I’ve ever made! Iv never made a whole wheat version to the classic banana bread recipe but so glad i found this recipe to give it a try’ So moist & great texture! As long as you measure everything correctly it will turn out so Airy & fluffy!
Heather says
Yay that makes me so happy to hear, Emily! And you’re totally right about measuring everything correctly – baking is quite a science! Thanks for your comment 🙂
ruth says
Taste is nice, but it’s too dense. The recipe didn’t explain how to air the dough, etc, as in banana bread from other recipes I read after making this one.
Heather says
Hi Ruth, I’m glad you liked the taste! And yes because it’s 100% whole wheat it will be a bit more dense than if you use AP flour. You can try substituting half AP flour and half Whole wheat flour next time and that should help with how dense it is (or all AP flour). I’m not sure what you mean by “air the dough”? Once you add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients just mix it until the flour is mixed in (and then stop mixing).
ruth says
Thanks for your reply. I followed the recipe exactly as you wrote it, but I used AP flour instead, cause I didn’t have whole wheat flour.
What I mean is that you did not mention to whisk eggs or egg whites separately, or sift the flour, as in other recipes. I mixed very little and by hand, but still the cake was too dense…
Heather says
Hi Ruth! For this banana bread recipe I didn’t whisk the eggs or egg whites separately or sift the flour as I found it didn’t need it. You could try sifting the flour and see if that helps? Also not sure if you’re measuring by weight or volume, but I would recommend either weighing your flour or make sure you fluff up the flour first, spoon the flour into the cup and level it off as it could end up with too much flour into the cup making it too dense as well, as I didn’t find it to be dense. It won’t have quite the texture of a cake, however, as it is a banana bread so it will be always a bit denser than cake. Hope those tips help 🙂
Andrea Wescott says
I made it. I added chocolate chips.