I’m all about healthy recipes, but sometimes it’s nice to eat something that brings you back to your childhood, regardless of health factors. For this recipe, I wanted to create a healthier banana bread that feels and tastes exactly like a slice of classic banana bread, but without all the guilt. Voila! I did it, and I’m pretty proud of myself. If I didn’t tell you that this was a healthier banana bread recipe, I promise you wouldn’t know it. A few simple swaps (oat flour, and I reduced the sugar by half) paired with classic ingredients make this recipe a keeper, and much lighter that the classic without taking away flavor or texture.
Healthier Banana Bread Ingredients
- 3 medium ripe or over-ripe bananas
- ¼ cup + 1tbs plain Greek yogurt (I use 2%)
- 1 stick (½ cup) salted butter at room temp
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup of all-purpose flour
- 1 cup oat flour (ground oats)
- 1 tsp baking soda (not leveled off)
- ½ tsp baking powder (not leveled off)
- Additional rolled oats to sprinkle on top (optional)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In the bowl of a standing mixer, mix bananas until they are broken down and mashed up. Add in yogurt, butter, brown sugar, and vanilla bean paste, and mix to combine. You may see some small pieces of butter throughout the mixture, and that’s okay. Next, mix in the eggs, one at a time until everything comes together.
In a separate bowl, mix the all-purpose flour, oat flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Note that I didn’t level off the baking powder or baking soda for this recipe. You don’t want heaping spoonfuls, but not quite leveling the baking powder and baking soda off gives an extra bit of rise to the batter.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in three batches, mixing until everything is just combined and dry ingredients are moistened.
Line a standard loaf pan with parchment paper and spray lightly with cooking spray. Add healthier banana bread batter to the loaf pan, and sprinkle with additional rolled oats if you’re using them. This just creates a pretty topping.
Bake at 350 degrees for one hour until the banana bread is cooked through. Let it rest in the pan until it’s cool enough to handle, then slice and serve. This makes 12-15 servings. You can always slice up this healthier banana bread and freeze the slices so you can simply pop one in the toaster in the morning when you want a healthy and delicious breakfast.
Enjoy!