I’ve always been a big banana bread fan, especially with a good slather of peanut butter on a slice right from the oven. However, I’m not such a big fan of how much oil/butter and sugar is actually in most banana bread. Banana bread sounds healthy, kind of like carrot cake. However, it actually has a ton of added fats and sugars. The recipe below comes to the rescue!
Greek yogurt is used in place of most of the oil, and maple syrup is swapped instead of refined sugar. Be sure to use REAL maple syrup–definitely do NOT use pancake syrup. Serve up the slice with a little peanut butter and you have a healthy breakfast or afternoon snack!
Again, my favorite Ninja blender came in clutch for this recipe when blending up the wet ingredients–you can find the same one I use below! I’ve been using it for 3 years now and haven’t experienced any change in speed or ability to blend.
Recipe slightly adapted from Ambitious Kitchen
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups mashed very ripe banana (make sure to measure out but this is about 3 medium bananas)
- 2 eggs, at room temperature
- 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted and cooled (can also use melted butter or avocado oil)
- 1/3 cup pure maple syrup (or sub honey)
- 1/2 cup nonfat plain greek yogurt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or can use white whole wheat flour)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Optional add-ins: ½ cup chopped walnuts, ½ cup chocolate chips, ½ cup coconut flakes or 3/4 cup fresh fruit
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9×5 inch pan with parchment paper and grease the inside of the pan to prevent sticking. Or, spray unlined loaf pan with cooking spray.
- Add mashed banana, eggs, coconut oil, maple syrup, greek yogurt and vanilla extract to a blender and blend until smooth and well combined. Pour into a large bowl.
- Next add in the dry ingredients: whole wheat pastry flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Mix well until just combined. Do not overmix. At this point you can fold in an of the following: ½ cup chopped walnuts, ½ cup chocolate chips, ½ cup coconut flakes or 3/4 cup fresh fruit.
- Pour batter into prepared pan. Split a banana down the middle then add on top of the batter or just add banana slices on top, side by side. Bake for 55-65 minutes or until a tester inserted into the middle comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Allow bread to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove and transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.
- Once bread is cool, cut into 12 slices. Serve with nut butter spread on top for a healthy snack or breakfast on the go.