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
This post contains affiliate links.
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?
Can I sub GF or almond flour for the all purpose ?
a good 1:1 (like king arthur) should work!
Can you replace the sugar with honey? How would you change the recipe to accommodate that?
Yes, you can sub the sugar with honey! I’d use about 3–4 tablespoons of honey total in place of the sugars. Since honey adds moisture, reduce the banana slightly (by 2–3 tablespoons) and watch the bake time. It might take a tiny bit longer.
-Stacy
Can I add protein powder to this recipe?
Yes, you can definitely add protein powder to the banana bread! I’d recommend reducing the flour slightly to balance it out. Lauren also has a great Protein Banana Bread recipe on the site that already includes protein powder—worth checking out! Here is the link: https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/protein-banana-bread/
Amazingly easy and delicious too!!!! Bow down !!
Love this recipe! I really appreciate how low sugar it is. Any suggestions on how to make a similar pumpkin bread? Would I just substitute equal amount of canned pumpkin for banana?
This is delicious! I am going to try adding nuts next time. I probably will use this recipe from now on because I don’t need all that sugar and butter.
This is the driest and most tasteless banana bread I have ever tasted. I followed the recipe but will not use this one again. There are much better options out there!
Me, and alot of other people tried this recipie and most of us agree that this was amazing!it could either be that you didn’t follow the recipie correctly, or that maybe your not used to or you don’t prefer food that isn’t sweet enough for you. Try giving these to other people and see what they say, hope this helps, also if you didn’t like this then you probably like sweet sugary things more, if that’s true then you should make a normal banana bread with sugar next time!
Amazing banana bread. Even reduced to 4 TB sugar and it was sweet and moist!
I thought this was the best lower sugar and lower fat banana bread recipe that I have tried.
10/10, moist, fluffy, sweet, incredible!!