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?
LOVE LOVE LOVE ***** I made one loaf exactly as you described and made muffins too. It lasted one day and one night in my house. This was the best recipe ever and I didn’t know how to add the butter so I just mixed it – I will melt it next time or just use olive oil or coconut oil. USE ALL 4 BANANA’S it makes a huge difference in taste and texture. Just enjoy the taste — you won’t miss the sugar — I didn’t tell my family it was low sugar and it was devoured fast.
Lauren, I just made this bread and it is fabulous!! I had plenty of ripe bananas BUT I Absolutely love your tip about ripening bananas in the oven. I did it and it worked like magic.
To my bread I added some Nancy’s Not fat vanilla yogurt. 3 Tbls for a little protein, plus I was out of vanilla. I added banana chunks ( the banana I ripened in the oven) to the batter. I also toasted some walnuts for a topping and drizzled a few TBLS of melted butter, with cinnamon and a few tsp of sugar over the walnuts! So I made it a little less skinny but hey artistic license right? It’s delicious! Thanks so much!
I tried this recipe and it’s simply the best. I’ve used many other recipes but this will become my go recipe for banana bread. I used coconut oil instead of butter, added one scoop of chocolate flavored plant based protein powder, and used 2 tablespoons of stevia brown sugar in lieu of the 3 tablespoons of regular brown sugar. I also added about one tablespoon of vanilla flavored Greek yogurt and a handful of walnuts. I baked the bread for 45 minutes. It turned out very moist and very flavorful. I used 4 bananas as was called for in the recipe.
Thank you, Lauren, for this terrific recipe. Family loved it! I substituted 1/3 oats for the flour and used coconut oil instead of butter. It still turned out so well. We can’t wait to try your other recipes all of which look fantastic. You are an amazing lady to be able to do all of this with three young children. They and your husband are lucky indeed!
Thank you Pam, you are so nice! I love your substitution ideas hear–I’m so happy you liked it, and I hope you get to try more recipes here soon 🙂
I feel stupid asking this can u sub an xtra large egg in a recipe for a large one? Also could I sub brown sugar with stevia blend for the sugar? I’m on WW. We buy xtra lg eggs at home.
Definitely YES you can substitute ex-large egg for a large egg. Also yes for the stevia but it will not taste as rich.
Delicious. I like that is has lots of bananas instead of a ton of sugar and fat like most banana bread recipes. And it is super easy to make 🙂 We’re going to try the muffin version of the recipe next time.
So yummy!! I totally forgot the egg and subbed oil for the butter but it was still delicious I can’t imagine how good it will be with egg and butter. This recipe is definitely a winner. Thank you.
I wonder if I could use powder peanut butter?
If I added cocoa powder to this recipe to make a chocolate banana bread, would it effect the recipe in anyway?
Hi Janett, I haven’t tried it but it should work fine. Remove a little of the flour.
I’ve follow your recipe but make some changes. I usted 2 eggs, only Brown sugar and spelt flour. And finaly don’t understand what I have to do with the melted butter so I added to de mix and it works!!!
Next time I’ll try your recipe exactly.
Best regards from Spain.
Any coment about butter??? Thanks