We sure love our banana bread around here! I just checked and I have three different banana bread recipes on LLK. It’s hard for me not to tweak it just a tiny bit every time I make it. The first time I subbed Greek Yogurt for the sour cream, and now I’ve exchanged coconut oil for the butter and also white whole wheat flour instead of white. I also added a little less sugar. Maybe next time I’ll try subbing maple syrup or honey for the refined sugar. Baby steps to healthy. That’s why I’m calling it healthier.
And I’m happy to say no one in my family noticed a difference in taste between this recipe and my old one. They were literally begging for a piece as I was taking pictures. I had to keep shooing them away like pigeons.
I like making banana bread because it counts as breakfast or dessert, and it’s so quick to pull together. Using an all in one mini loaf pan like this one makes it much easier than dealing with four separate pans to maneuver in and out of the oven.
And then all four little loaves were gone in 24 hours. There may have been tears when someone ate the last slice and didn’t offer to split it. Never thought I’d buy extra bananas and let them go black on purpose just to keep up with the banana bread demand around here!
Did you make this recipe?
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Healthier Banana Bread
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 4 mini loaves 1x
- Category: Bread
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Description
Our favorite banana bread made with Greek yogurt, coconut oil, and white whole wheat flour.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup coconut oil (in liquid form)
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 cup whole milk Greek yogurt
- 1 cup banana pulp (about three ripe bananas)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cup white whole wheat flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup crushed sliced almonds*
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray four mini loaf pans** with nonstick spray.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream coconut oil and sugar together on medium speed. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well in between.
- Add Greek yogurt, banana pulp, and vanilla extract and mix.
- In a separate bowl, mix flour, salt and baking soda. On low speed, mix the dry ingredients into the batter.
- Stir in the nuts until well incorporated.
- Divide the batter between the loaf pans, filling each about halfway.
- Bake for 30-33 minutes, or until the tops are browned and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Notes
*I love the texture of this bread with the sliced almonds. I simply crush them up in the bag before opening it. It gives a wonderfully delicate crunch. **My mini loaf pans are 3″ wide x 5 1/2″ long x 1 3/4″ deep. You can also make 18 muffins with this recipe. Reduce baking time to about 20 minutes.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 mini loaf
- Calories: 854
- Sugar: 63g
- Sodium: 490mg
- Fat: 45g
- Saturated Fat: 25g
- Unsaturated Fat: 16.9g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 104g
- Fiber: 9.7g
- Protein: 16g
- Cholesterol: 95mg
Disclaimer: the links in this post for the mini loaf pan are Amazon affiliate links.
Carmyn says
I was just about to throw away 3 very ripe bananas as I was cleaning up the kitchen tonight. This post came just in time, looks like I’ll be making banana bread in the morning! You could do this in one regular sized loaf pan, right? That’s all I have. Would you have to adjust the cooking time or temperature?
Julie says
Hi Carmyn – if you make this recipe in one standard loaf pan you will bake at the same temperature, but for about 50-55 minutes. When a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the top is nice and brown, it’s done!
K says
Hi Julie. Have you been able to make this with maple syrup or honey? Interested in also making those substitutions!
K
Julie says
I haven’t yet, but next time I have too ripe bananas I definitely will!
Patricia says
love, love this banana bread, it will be my go to from now on! before I knew it was all gone…made some more and froze it..my family so enjoyed every bite.
Thank you for sharing
Julie says
You are so welcome Patricia. That’s how my family is with this bread too – I usually try to sneak a loaf or two in the freezer or they will eat it all in 24 hours!
Jennie says
Hi Julia. Is it ok to use vegetable oil instead of coconut oil? Thanks!
Julie says
Hi Jennie, yes I believe it will be fine to swap out vegetable oil for the coconut oil. I also have another recipe for banana bread with Greek yogurt that uses butter that people absolutely LOVE! Here is a link in case you want to check it out. Hope you enjoy!
https://lovelylittlekitchen.com/greek-yogurt-banana-bread/
Fanny says
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Thank you for keeping this site, I’ll be visiting it.
Do you do newsletters? Cant find it.
Grace says
I’ve made this a few of times and it’s now my new go to banana bread. I make it a large loaf pan and the top gets pretty dark in color, but it’s still delicious! Thanks so much for the recipe!
Julie says
Sounds great! How long do you bake it?
Yinnie says
It was a hot day and I folded in half melted choc chips in. It all sank to the bottom 😭. Still delicious!
Didn’t have a mixer so all hand mixed. 🙂 brilliant recipe!
Julie says
Yinnie, glad it worked for you anyway. I’ve heard you can coat chocolate chips in a dusting of flour to help keep them from sinking in batter, but I haven’t tried that trick myself.
Amy says
The guys in my office wanted banana bread but have recently started eating healthier, so I made this recipe. It got rave reviews! Moist, great banana flavor and just all around yummy. I’ll definitely make it again!
Julie says
Thanks Amy!
Maureen Bolinger says
Just made this tonight and yummy! I used a bit of baking powder, and instead of whole wheat (because I did want to open the bag), I used 1 cup of white flour and 1/4 coconut flour. I just used 4 ripe bananas and did not measure. And chopped walnuts. It really was so yummy. I have the mini loaves and came out great. We usually freeze one for later but we (hubby and 1o year old twins) ate 2 loaves already! Thank you.
Julie says
I like that you made it your own Maureen. This recipe has proved to be so versatile. Glad everyone loved it too!
Rose says
Do you know how many calories are in one slice of the loaf pan?
Sara says
Any way of making this without using refined sugar?
Julie says
Sara, I would like to experiment with that too – it’s on my list! I think I would try subbing maple syrup or honey for the sugar (I would start with 3/4 cup) and then adding a little more flour until the batter looked like the right consistency. Let me know how it goes if you try it!
Becky says
After all these amazing reviews I’m going to try this recipe but with coconut sugar instead of regular sugar! It’s a great alternative to sugar and sweetners.
Erin says
This is my go to banana bread recipe. I use 1/2 Cup of Grade B pure Maple syrup in place of sugar and it has perfect consistency and is delicious!
Julie says
Excellent – I’ll try it with the maple syrup next time!
Shannon says
Have you made this with almond flour and would the ratio be the same? Thank you!
trish says
Banana bread recipes are so unpredictable, but I made this recipe as muffins and they turned out great. Moist and fluffy. I didn’t have Whole wheat flour, but had All Purpose so I just used that and it worked great. I usually try to stay gluten free and low carb, so mostly use almond or Coconut flour, but for the holidays I’ve been splurging. I’d love to see your version of an alternative flour muffin recipe!
Mohita says
This banana bread is absolutely AWESOME 👏. My kids love it and ohhh my god words cannot describe how good this is!! Super moist and recommend this recipe to ALL!!
Grace says
Julie, after now 5 years of using this as my go-to banana bread and muffin recipe, I figured it was time to leave a comment. This recipe is truly perfect and very adaptable. I’ve swapped sugar for maple syrup, greek yogurt for oat milk, almonds for walnuts… The list goes on. Each time it turns out perfectly and I have directed countless friends and family to this page. THANK YOU for this little piece of genius work.
Annie says
After making this banana bread a million times over many years (I usually add chopped dark chocolate inside and walnuts on the top) just wanted to say that it’s my absolute favourite, go-to banana bread that has the best flavour and texture and is impossible to mess up! Thank you Julie for bringing me so many happy banana bread moments.