Am I the only one who could eat banana bread every dang day, for life?
If you’re still here, then I’m glad we’re on the same wavelength and please know you are in good company.
Several years ago, I posted one of my all time favorite banana bread recipes here. But it was time to try a slightly different version of that recipe. One that remained gluten-free, low added sugar, and relatively simple.
If you’ve followed me for a while, you know that I like to “healthify” recipes. This doesn’t always make them lower calorie, but usually makes them more nutrient-dense. In the case of banana bread recipes, this translates to swapping the flours, using different fats, and dramatically lowering the added sugar.
This particular recipe was inspired and adapted from this site. I could simply end my post here, but I wanted to give you a couple extra notes AND the option to look at a recipe without all of the pop-up ads that come with most recipe sites these days. [We remain ad-free here.]
Ingredients:
3 ripe bananas, mashed (1.5 c or ~360 gm)
3 large eggs
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil (or coconut oil, but I find this too greasy at times)
1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract (original recipe calls for a splash)
1/3 c creamy nut butter (I used peanut butter)
2 c blanched almond flour (225 gm; I use Bob’s Red Mill Super Fine Almond Flour)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 to 1 tsp salt (optional, but I consider necessary)
The above is the original recipe, but you can add chopped nuts, seeds, chocolate chips, etc.)
Preparation steps:
Preheat oven to 350F and use an oil spray to lightly coat a bread loaf pan.
Mix together bananas, eggs, oil, vanilla, and nut butter in a large bowl.
Pulse in almond flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. If adding other goodies, fold them in as the last step.
Spoon the batter into the loaf pan and bake for 45-60 minutes. You’ll need to check the bread for doneness with a toothpick after about 40-45 minutes and go from there, using your best judgment as to doneness. You’ll see a beautiful golden brown emerge and your toothpick should come out clean when it’s done.
Let cool for at least 15 minutes before removing from the pan and devouring.
Don’t judge my baking outcomes by appearance only. I live at high elevation (8600 feet), so I can’t always get it textbook perfect.
Basic nutrition info per slice (without nuts or chocolate chips):
Yield: 12 servings
210 calories
14 grams carbohydrate (~3 gm fiber)
8 grams protein
13 grams fat
Notice there’s ZERO added sugar in this recipe - the bananas sweeten the bread sufficiently (unless your palate is in Sweet Mode most of the time). This is a moist bread and delicious.
And yes, I will make it again!
Let me know if you try it,
Dina