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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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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
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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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
This recipe hits EVERY TIME!!! Even cooking this at high altitude and accidentally throwing the dry ingredients with the wet before mixing, still came out great. I also added in walnuts and choc chips! So yummy!!!!
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?
I don’t see applesauce in the ingredient list
Applesauce listed next to the butter, can be used instead of butter.
Wonderful recipe and turned out great!
This is my go to Banana bread recipe. I’ve made it several times. Very moist and not a lot of sugar. Super good. I add walnuts in mine. Delicious.
Oh my, I just made the banana bread and I was not disappointed. Easy and tasty.
This recipe turned out SO good! Ended up using a little Splenda and some maple syrup instead of the sugar and it’s delicious! Topped with dark chocolate chips!
Thank you for sharing this delicious receipe, I made it already plenty times for my 3 old boy. 🙏
This was really good. Our whole family enjoyed it!
I decreased the sugar to 1/3c and used olive oil (1.5Tbsp) for butter – this was amazing!! So light, fruity and sweet!
A great recipe!!
I made this recipe exactly as written and was extremely surprised at how delicious the final result turned out to be. The loaf may not puff up as much as in other recipes due to the ingredients proportions and may not be supremely fluffy but it has a very good flavor and is an easy recipe to follow. I would make this again.
I LOVE your banana bread recipe! I make banana bread on a regular basis as it’s one of my favorites as well as my a favorite of my granddaughters! I have tossed out my old recipe and will use yours now as long as I can bake! Next I’m going to try it with gluten-free flour blend as I have two daughters that can only have gluten-free foods. Thank you so much for sharing that the same recipe can be made with the gluten-free blend flour.
sadly the bread had the perfect texture, cooked amazing. only thing is I can’t taste the banana at all, its super plain. I added in nutmeg, did 2c whole wheat flour, 1c pastry flour (double batch)
even had a little extra banana puree.
I replaced 4tbls of butter with 4tbls Greek yogurt.
those were the changes I made, and using swerve brown sugar, granular sugar.
did I put to much whole wheat flour that it covered up the banana taste? Did the Greek yogurt take away from it??
This recipe is absolutely perfect though, other than me messing up trying to make it healthier so I can enjoy it.
Sooo moist and wonderful! I subbed it with a gluten free flour mix and I subbed the sugar for coconut and monk fruit, and it was perfect.