This Healthy Banana Bread is lower in sugar and higher in protein than most banana bread recipes. We tried five different recipes to get here, so we hope you like it. If you don't, we'll just go back to crying into our pillow.
I don’t have any issue with sugar or butter, but I wanted to give myself the challenge to create a healthy banana bread recipe that didn’t use either. Not even “healthier” refined sugar substitutes like honey or maple syrup. And, I wanted the banana bread to still taste moist and delicious. As I said, a challenge.
– spotted yellow bananas – coconut oil – maple syrup – cinnamon – fine salt – baking powder – all-purpose flour – applesauce (no sugar added) – Greek yogurt – vanilla extract – eggs
After four attempts to make a healthy banana bread that was lower in sugar, I did a bit more investigating and found that while many recipes have so much sugar that it masks the taste of everything else, sugar, like salt, is a flavor enhancer. The trick is to add just enough. To keep this healthy banana bread recipe still relatively low in sugar, I caramelized the bananas.
I sliced the just slightly spotted yellow bananas into 1" medallions and placed them and 1 tablespoon of coconut oil into a nonstick skillet. I turned the heat to medium low, stirring the mixture until the bananas had caramelized. I then added one tablespoon of maple syrup and cooked the mixture until the bananas were very soft. I added ¼ tsp. cinnamon and cooked the mixture for one more minute. I poured the banana bread batter into a bowl, added the other wet ingredients and the remaining cinnamon.
For kicks, I toasted ½ cup of walnuts and added those to the dry mixture. I combined everything and poured the final mixture into a nonstick loaf pan and baked it for 55 minutes at 350° F. This healthy banana bread was moist, light, and super flavorful. It tasted of bananas and cinnamon and the crust was just ever so crunchy.