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Bread · Quick Breads

Healthier Banana Bread

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.

Healthier Banana Bread mini loaf that has been sliced, with a whole mini loaf and another sliced mini loaf in the background.

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.

Healthier Banana Bread mini loaf that has been sliced.

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!

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Healthier Banana Bread

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

5 from 4 reviews

Our favorite banana bread made with Greek yogurt, coconut oil, and white whole wheat flour.

  • Author: Julie
  • Prep Time: 20 minutes
  • Cook Time: 30 minutes
  • Total Time: 50 minutes
  • Yield: 4 mini loaves 1x
  • Category: Bread
  • Method: Bake
  • Cuisine: American

Ingredients

Scale
  • 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

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray four mini loaf pans** with nonstick spray.
  2. 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.
  3. Add Greek yogurt, banana pulp, and vanilla extract and mix.
  4. In a separate bowl, mix flour, salt and baking soda. On low speed, mix the dry ingredients into the batter.
  5. Stir in the nuts until well incorporated.
  6. Divide the batter between the loaf pans, filling each about halfway.
  7. 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 3β€³ wide x 5 1/2β€³ long x 1 3/4β€³ 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.

29 Comments

  1. 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?

    Reply
    • 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!

      Reply
  2. 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

    Reply
    • 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!

      Reply
  3. Hiya, I’m really glad I have found this info. Nowadays bloggers publish just
    about gossips and net and this is really annoying.
    A good web site with interesting content, that’s what I need.

    Thank you for keeping this site, I’ll be visiting it.
    Do you do newsletters? Cant find it.

    Reply
  4. 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!

    Reply
  5. 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. πŸ™‚ brilliant recipe!

    Reply
    • 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.

      Reply
  6. 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!

    Reply
  7. 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.

    Reply
    • 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!

      Reply
      • 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.

      • 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!

  8. 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!

    Reply
  9. This banana bread is absolutely AWESOME πŸ‘. My kids love it and ohhh my god words cannot describe how good this is!! Super moist and recommend this recipe to ALL!!

    Reply
  10. 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.

    Reply
  11. 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.

    Reply

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