This EASY Healthy Banana Bread recipe is made with low sugar, no oil and is just over 100 calories per slice. It yields incredibly moist, perfectly sweet, and delicious bread!
Looking for more bread recipes? Try my Lemon Poppy Seed Bread, Artisan No Knead Bread, or Skillet Cornbread!
What I love about the recipe:
- Normal Ingredients – No artificial sweeteners or anything out of the ordinary here. I use basic pantry ingredients you already have.
- Healthy – No oil, low sugar, FOUR bananas, and around 100 calories per slice!
- Tastes Amazing – When baked goods are labeled “healthy” they often don't taste great, but I promise you no one would ever guess that this banana bread is any different! It is still just as moist, sweet, and scrumptious as traditional banana bread!
How to make Healthy Banana Bread:
Grease a standard 9×5” loaf pan (I also like to line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper to make sure the loaf doesn't stick).
Mash bananas in a mixing bowl. Add egg, vanilla, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and cinnamon and stir well to combine.
Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl. Add to banana mixture and stir to combine. Stir in melted butter.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 35-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Cool in the pan for 5-10 few minutes before inverting onto a wire cooling rack.
Pro Tips:
- Use very ripe bananas. The riper the banana, the sweeter it is, the easier it is to mash, and the more sweetness it adds to the bread.
- Trick to ripen bananas quickly: Place the bananas (peel on) on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees F for about 6-8 minutes. until the outer peel is dark.
Storing and Freezing Instructions:
To Store: Banana bread will keep at room temperature for 3-5 days.
To Freeze: Cool completely and then store in an airtight container or freezer safe bag for up to 3 months. Allow to thaw to room temperature before serving.
Recipe Variations:
- Healthy Banana Muffins: Follow my instructions HERE!
- Mix-Ins: Feel free to stir in ¾ cup of you favorite chopped nuts, chocolate chips, or raisins, at the end, before adding the batter to the pan.
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Recipe
Healthy Banana Bread
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 bananas , about 1 ⅓ cups, mashed (320 g)
- 1 large egg
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract (15 ml)
- 3 Tablespoons light brown sugar (38 g)
- 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar (25 g)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (2.6 g)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder (4 g)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda (5 g)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt (2.5 g)
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (white or white-whole wheat) (180 g)
- 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter , melted (or substitute applesauce) (28 g butter or 30 g applesauce)
Instructions
- Grease a standard 9×5” loaf pan (I also like to line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper to make sure the loaf doesn't stick).
- Mash bananas in a mixing bowl. Add egg, vanilla, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and cinnamon and stir well to combine.
- In a separate small bowl stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add to banana mixture and stir to combine.
- Gently stir in melted butter. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 35-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Allow to cool in the pan for 5-10 few minutes before inverting onto a wire cooling rack.
Notes
Nutrition
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I originally shared this recipe January 2017. Updated January 2021 and January 2022.
Process photos by Nikole from The Travel Palate
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Delicious!I have made it 4 times in 3 days! We just can’t get enough!!!
I absolutely LOVE this recipe!!! I make it as muffins and I add walnuts. I make this EVERY weekend so we have them for lunches for the week. My whole family LOVES them!
Hi, did you add applesauce as listed in the ingredients list?
How long did you bake the muffins?
Made this for the first time today. Turned out great!
I made this today and it came out moist and perfect! I made a few adjustments: 2 tbsps instead of 3 tbsps of brown sugar, 1 tbsps instead of 2tbsps of granulated sugar; I only had 1 cup of mashed banana so I added 1/3 cup of unsweetened applesauce. I added 1/3 cup of walnut halves too so I think that kicked up the cals to 200! This will be my default recipe from now on! Thank you!
I was looking for a lower sugar recipe to make healthier banana bread for my kids. This one passed the test! It’s delicious and my kids have no clue there’s so much less sugar in it. I do trick them and add some chocolate chips to the top (and they think the chips are all throughout). What a great recipe.
I keep making this recipe because it’s so good and goes so fast in our house. Always moist, delicious and healthy. Using 4 very ripe bananas is key and makes it easy too.
Great recipe! I made it even skinnier and replaced the butter with applesauce. Add some chopped walnuts as well 👍turned out very good👏
100 calories per slice is not possible with this recipe unless you are slicing each loaf into 16 slices, which would be VERY thin for banana bread.
It’s a great, low fat recipe (especially if you substitute fat free yogurt for the butter) , but it’s still 1600 calories per loaf.
This is a great recipe! Will definitely make it all the time now!
Took time out of my fat to make this recipe for my family and cookedit for an hour and it did not turn out. Way under cooked even though I cooked it longer. I don’t recommend it nor will I make it again.
Excellent! I have made “light” versions of banana bread before, but this is by far the best. I substituted 3 tablespoons of brown sugar with organic maple syrup and omitted the extra tablespoons of white sugar. I also used whole wheat flour and added chopped walnuts. I followed your advice and first brought my egg to room temperature (something I never did before). Definitely a keeper.
Followed recipe to the letter. Bread top layer was baked. The inside was not cooked but not under. The taste was not good either. Not a good recipe for me. Happy for those that it worked for. Just won’t use this one again.