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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
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
How much applesauce??
If you’re using applesauce instead of the melted unsalted butter, you can use the same amount: 2 tablespoons. Enjoy!
Excellent recipe! I made two loafs of banana bread today.
This recipe is so good! Recently I’ve been able to be confident enough to one not even refer to the recipe, that’s how much I make it. And two… I’ve been adding sourdough starter to it to make it even better!! It’s just devine
I only have 3 bananas will it do i ate the fourth banana last night
Unfortunately, wasn’t so stoked about this recipe. Made the usual adjustments (ww flour, 1/ sugar, added a few choc chips, added a couple tbsp greek yoghurt instead of some butter, added nuts to one loaf) I du=oubled the recipe, but both loaves came out gummy. The only reason the fam ate some of it was the chocolate chips. Maybe I did something wrong- but it wasn’t the baking powder.
Those two tbsp of oil make a huge difference. Without oil, you tend to get, “gummy” baked goods.
You can’t really blame the recipe if you didn’t follow the recipe….
This is my go-to banana bread recipe that I have made many, many times now! I haven’t added any extras like raisins or walnuts yet because it’s so perfect as is. I use the apple sauce substitute option. I love that there is minimal sugar and no oil.
I love all of these suggestions–thanks Mina!
I’m so glad I found this recipe! My teenage son has been obsessed with banana bread and I was buying it at the store–expensive and full of sugar. I made this and he said it was better than the store, even when I made it with applesauce.
I plan to make this today. Have you tried this recipe with self rising flour? I have a quite a bit and would like to use it up before expiration.
I loved this. I made in mini muffin pan and baked 13 min. I also added walnuts and a few choc chips.
This was delicious but came out very flat, barely 2″ high. I made sure I included both the baking powder aand baking soda. Any idea what happened? After I mixed it up and after adding it to the 9 x 5 pan, I wondered if it should have said 8 X 5.
Maybe you overmixed.