Healthy Banana Bread!
With this healthy banana bread recipe, you're only a few basic ingredients away from the best banana bread ever! It's made with whole wheat flour and honey.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 29, 2024
Want to make someone’s day? Bake them some banana bread! Just yesterday, I said, “I’m going to bake some banana bread,” and watched a full-grown man’s eyes light up like a kid’s on Christmas morning.
Banana bread is one of those classic, all-American comfort food recipes that fills the whole house with warmth and makes everything better. Banana bread is magic.
I perfected this banana bread recipe for my cookbook and wanted to share with you here. This recipe has all the hallmarks of classic banana bread—it’s fluffy, moist, infused with sweet banana flavor, and beloved by toddlers and adults alike.
Bonus? This recipe requires just one bowl, a few measuring cups and some basic ingredients.
What makes this banana bread healthy?
- This banana bread recipe is made with 100 percent whole wheat flour, unlike traditional banana bread recipes that call for refined flour and lots of processed sugar.
- This banana bread is naturally sweetened with honey or maple syrup, which offer some trace nutrients that white sugar does not.
- Lastly, this recipe calls for a reasonable amount of unrefined oil rather than whole sticks of butter (choose from virgin coconut oil, extra-virgin olive oil or vegetable oil).
As you can see, my homemade banana bread has plenty of redeeming qualities, chief being that it won’t send your blood sugar levels for a loop. You can keep them all to yourself, though. No one will be able to tell that this is healthy banana bread!
Banana Bread Flour Options
This recipe is flexible! Any of the following flours will work well. I love to use white whole wheat flour and whole wheat pastry flour—they offer all the whole wheat nutrients, without the characteristically nutty flavor.
- All-purpose flour
- Gluten-free all-purpose flour blend
- Oat flour*
- Spelt flour
- Whole wheat flour
- Whole wheat pastry flour
- White whole wheat flour
*To substitute oat flour, you’ll need to use 2 1/2 cups, for reasons elaborated in my guide to oat flour.
Want to make your banana bread with almond flour? You sure can, but it’s not a simple substitute, so follow my almond flour-based banana bread recipe instead.
Tip: How to Measure Flour
For best results, it’s important to measure your flour properly. Here’s how to measure flour in cups using the “spoon and swoop” method:
- Gently stir your flour with a large spoon to loosen it up.
- Spoon the flour into your measuring cup (don’t scoop it in!).
- Level off the excess with a butter knife.
Banana Bread Variations
Now that I’ve finally perfected this basic banana bread, feel free to change up this recipe and make it your own. Toss some chopped pecans or walnuts into the batter! Same goes for chocolate chips. You could also add raisins, chopped dried fruit or slices of bananas.
Craving muffins instead? Follow my recipe for healthy banana muffins.
Following a special diet? With a couple of minor tweaks, you can make this bread vegan (so dairy free and egg free, too) or gluten free. Check the recipe notes for details.
Watch How to Make Healthy Banana Bread
Healthy Banana Bread
With this healthy banana bread recipe, you’re only a few simple ingredients away from the best banana bread ever! It’s made with whole wheat flour and naturally sweetened with honey or maple syrup. You can easily make this banana bread vegan or gluten free—check the recipe notes for details. Recipe yields 1 loaf (about 10 slices).
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup (75 grams) melted coconut oil or extra-virgin olive oil or high quality vegetable oil*
- ½ cup honey (168 grams) or maple syrup (155 grams)
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup (225 grams) mashed ripe bananas (about 2 ½ medium or 2 large bananas)
- ¼ cup (56 grams) milk of choice or water
- 1 teaspoon baking soda (NOT baking powder; they aren’t the same!)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, plus more to swirl on top
- 1 ¾ cups (220 grams) white whole wheat flour or regular whole wheat flour**
- Totally optional: ½ cup mix-ins like chopped walnuts or pecans, chocolate chips, raisins, chopped dried fruit, fresh banana slices…
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit (165 degrees Celsius) and grease a 9×5-inch loaf pan.
- In a large bowl, beat the oil and honey together with a whisk. Add the eggs and beat well, then whisk in the mashed bananas and milk. (If your coconut oil solidifies on contact with cold ingredients, simply let the bowl rest in a warm place for a few minutes, like on top of your stove, or warm it for about 10 seconds in the microwave.)
- Add the baking soda, vanilla, salt and cinnamon, and whisk to blend. Lastly, switch to a big spoon and stir in the flour, just until combined. Some lumps are ok! If you’re adding any additional mix-ins, gently fold them in now.
- Pour the batter into your greased loaf pan and sprinkle lightly with cinnamon. If you’d like a pretty swirled effect, run the tip of a knife across the batter in a zig-zag pattern.
- Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (typically, if I haven’t added any mix-ins, my bread is done at 55 minutes; if I have added mix-ins, it needs closer to 60 minutes). Let the bread cool in the loaf pan for at least 10 minutes. You may need to run a butter knife around the edges to loosen the bread from the pan. Carefully transfer the loaf to a wire rack to cool before slicing.
Notes
Recipe adapted from my honey whole wheat banana bread, originally based on All Recipes.
Storage suggestions: This bread is moist, so it will keep for just two or three days at room temperature. Store it in the refrigerator for five to seven days, or in the freezer for up to three months or so. I like to slice the bread before freezing and defrost individual slices, either by letting them rest at room temperature or lightly toasting them.
*Oil options: I love coconut oil here. I used unrefined coconut oil and can hardly taste it in the final product. Olive oil might lend an herbal note to the muffins, if you’re into that (I tested with California Olive Ranch’s “Everyday” variety and couldn’t even taste it). Vegetable oil has a neutral flavor, but the average vegetable/canola oil is highly processed, so I recommend using cold-pressed sunflower oil or grapeseed oil if possible.
**Flour alternatives: In place of the whole wheat flour, you can use an equal amount of all purpose flour, whole wheat pastry flour, spelt flour, or gluten-free all-purpose flour blend. Or, substitute 2 ½ cups oat flour.
Make muffins: Here’s my banana muffin recipe.
Make it vegan: Use maple syrup instead of honey, replace the eggs with flax eggs and choose non-dairy milk (I used almond milk) or water.
Make it dairy free: Choose non-dairy milk (I used almond milk) or water.
Make it egg free: Replace the eggs with flax eggs.
Make it gluten free: Use an equal amount of Bob’s Red Mill’s gluten-free blend or 2 ½ cups certified gluten-free oat flour. Do NOT substitute coconut flour.
Make it lower in fat: I would argue that this bread contains a healthy amount of fat, but you can replace the oil with applesauce if you’re following a low-fat diet.
If you love this recipe: You will also love my banana muffins, banana cake with cream cheese frosting, healthy pumpkin bread and pumpkin muffins. Here are all of my baked goods and banana recipes.
Recommended equipment: I am totally in love with my Fiesta Loaf Pan in Turquoise (affiliate link).
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
I have organic cane sugar on had, could I use that instead of maple syrup or honey?
Organic cane sugar is bit sweeter in my opinion. I used it for a cake and it was too sweet for my taste. (I am a kind of person who reduce the amount of sugar in all recipes by at least 1/2) May be reduce the amount of sugar if you don’t like extra sweetness
Bestest banana cake ever!
I double the ingredients and make it in a bundt tin and have tried it with chock chips and raisins – both yummy.
It is good using olive oil or coconut oil.
Thank you Kate
PS I would give a 6 star rating if i could
I love all your baking recipes, and this is one of my favorites! I wanted to try adding some grated zucchini to it, do you have any suggestions on how much to add and how to revise the recipe? I assume zucchini will add some moisture…Thank you!!
You could try “the hearty feel-good banana bread” from The natural nurturer and just use mashed banana in place of the apple sauce. Her recipes never fail me, same as Kate’s.
I make this recepie weekly with my 4 year old daughter in the jungles of Indonesia….yummy yummy in my tummy
Love this recipe! Made for the first time and it’s gone down a treat! Will definitely bake again.
I don’t think Ive ever reviewed a recipe before but this deserves it. I have made this over and over and over again. It’s moist, flavoursome, easily adapted to include mix-ins, kids love it… what more could you want?
Have you ever made this with a liquid egg substitute? With the price of eggs I’m always looking for a good egg replacement
I was not planning on it being so delicious especially with it being healthy. I Plan on making it again soon.
This by far my favorite banana bread recipe !!! I’m confident is saying this could be my only banana bread recipe EVER !!! I use Chosen Avocado/EVVO. I made this last night because I had 3 over ripened bananas and was craving this delicious bread. I folded in 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips. My son ate half of it and had no idea it was ” healthy ” that’s how awesome this recipe is !!! It’s moist and the crumb is tender and delicious !!! Thank you for a great recipe Kate !!! ❤️❤️
I absolutely love this recipe !!!! I use no other! My husband loves it too!!
I have tried adding 3 tbsp of chia and turns out great! Thank you so much!!!
Delicious. Made as written though I did replace 1/4 cup whole wheat flour with all purpose to make it a touch lighter. Oh, and I didn’t have enough maple syrup or honey so I added both together to equal the 1/2 cup. Chopped walnuts added at end, but next time maybe raisins. Took the full 60 minutes.
Novice baker here! Question: if I use a silicone Bundt pan instead of a metal one, do I need to adjust the baking time? More or less? Also, having trouble deciding when it’s done and think I’ve been over cooking a little. Just how clean does that toothpick need to be?! Thank you!
Hi Stassi, silicone does not conduct heat as well as glass or metal, so it will take longer to bake. The toothpick should come out clean without any signs of wet batter. I hope this helps!
This recipe is delicious and I feel so healthy eating it (even after 3-4 slices–butt ends don’t count!), but for some reason mine always comes out kinda dry. I’ve made it twice now and the second time I cooked it for 45 min instead of 55 minutes which helped, but it’s still a somewhat dry, crumbly texture. I like a really moist cake (if I could just eat raw batter all day, I would…) I used oat flour both times (so 2.5 cups as per your instructions) as it’s my favorite flour; is this perchance the culprit? Would like to keep using oat flour so is there something extra I could add/subtract from the recipe to make it more moist? Thanks for your help!
Has anyone had to cook a lot longer than said time? I followed the recipe to a T but it seems that after an hour + it’s still quite “doughy” inside. Looking forward to coming back with a tasteful review!
Hi Em, have you checked your oven temperature with a thermometer? That would definitely make a difference, and you’d be surprised how often gauges are off.
Would I be able to mix this the night before cooking it and store in fridge?
Hi Kathryne, thank you for sharing this recipe!
I’d like to add frozen raspberries as a mix-in, I’ve seen recipes where they suggest to mix a bit of flour with the raspberries before adding them to the other ingredients (I guess because it’s quite watery), do you have any tips? Have you tried adding raspberries in your recipe?
Thank you!
Hi Lilou, I haven’t tried adding frozen raspberries to this recipe, but in general tossing berries in flour before adding to muffins helps them stay more evenly distributed in the batter. Hope that helps!
I made this bread. Taste is fantastic but the bread was not moist. The batter was very thick, resembled the texture of cookie dough. I’ve reviewed the recipe numerous times and I did not forget anything. In hindsight I should have added more milk. I can’t understand why my batter was so thick. The taste is definitely worth another try.
Oh yum! Very easy to make. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe.
This is the best perfect recipe. I’ve followed this recipe and couldn’t be more pleased.
I’ve made your Healthy Banana Bread and Healthy Banana Muffins. I made a few minor tweaks, but nothing major. I use 3 bananas instead of 2. I only use Whole Wheat Flour and used Organic Honey for the sweetener and Organic Coconut Oil (melted). The hardest part is preventing the Coconut Oil from solidifying after you mix it together with the other ingredients, even at room temperature. This can be a challenge-Good Luck. Other than that this is the BEST banana muffin/bread recipe and I’ve tried many. I make it probably a couple times a month. It has become my favorite baking recipe. Very friendly. I’m not a baker, I prefer to cook. But this recipe gets me excited. It’s very easy. One more thing: Do not OVER BEAT/MIX your batter. It will turn out tough and gummy. Not pleasant at all. Mix by hand and do not use an electric mixer of any kind. You’re welcome.
This is the best bread ever Ive made it 1000 times with the oat flour sub. I want to make it for my baby’s birthday cake – do you think it would work in 6” cake pans? Thanks!
Made this w coconut oil, maple syrup, normal milk etc. but went a little light on the cinnamon and maple- came out perfect! This was my first ever nana bread too
I made this today and it was the best!
This was DELISH! My kids and I already have eaten one and a half loaves since last night! Used coconut oil and chocolate chips in one loaf. SO GOOD!
This banana bread recipe is the best! and I don’t even like healthy foods! 10/10
I make this all the time, it’s a great recipe
best banana bread i’ve tried only had 70g of honey on me so that’s what i used hoped for the best and it was still nice a savory sweet a hit with the whole family !
There were so many pop-up ads and other distractions that I kept losing the recipe while I was trying to follow it. I will not be back to this site.
I am prediabetic and made this banana bread today. I substituted unsweetened applesauce for the honey. I also added the walnuts for added protein. Both my husband and I agree that this is a delicious recipe! It will be my “go-to” recipe from now on.
I wanted to love this but the coconut oil tasted overwhelming to me. I usually love the taste of coconut. I wish I would’ve added way less or substituted it with olive oil. Overall recipe called for common ingredients I had on hand and instructions were easy to follow. May try again with olive oil next time.
AMAZING BANANA BREAD!! I love this recipe especially because it is a healthier and higher protein (especially if you add protein powder) dessert. If you add mix-ins like walnuts or pecans I recommend adding them with the honey first because it gives them a candied-like taste! Cant wait to try more recipes from here
Best truly healthy banana recipe ever. I used sugar-free Log Cabin syrup and Bob’s Red Mill stone ground whole wheat. Sprinkled cinnamon/Splenda generously all over the top. Delicious and perfect texture. This is now my go-too, so easy banana bread recipe.
Hi : )
I made this cake couple of weeks ago for the first effort it came out perfect!
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe.
I live in the UK and used the quantities in grams which worked just fine.
I only had to change one thing and that was replacing honey with sugar since I had none at home!,… so I added the same quantity (168gr) but then I read that honey is sweeter than sugar, so you could probably add a tad more sugar if you like yours sweeter but for me it was the right amount and I really enjoyed it.
Best banana bread I’ve ever made! So yummy, and really fluffy and rose a lot. Big fan of your blueberry muffins too – I make a batch every week!
Hi!
I just made your healthy banana bread and it came out very nice from the outside. It taste good, but I want it more on a moist side. How can I make it moist? I used organic coconut oil and good quality butter mixed already? Maybe I had more flour?
I just saw on your site the proper way to measure flour and will follow your advice next time.
Thank you so much!
Ronnie
Hi Ronnie, Yes, make sure you’re measuring the flour accurately. Also be careful not to over-bake it. You might check your oven temperature with a thermometer and do the toothpick test 5 minutes early. I hope this helps!
Thank you so much Kate! I appreciate your response very much. I googled other ways to make cake and bread moist… by adding mayo? buttermilk instead of milk, yes…,
Instant Clearjel? Yogurt? Sour Cream? More eggs? What do you think of those things that I mentioned? What really works and effective?
Btw, I just got your recipe book yesterday :) and will use more of your other recipes, especially some of the salads.
Best Regards,
Ronnie
I made this loaf cake and it was absolutely delicious I tweaked the recipe by adding dark chocolate and spelt flour .I am going to try this again using the applesauce which has been recommended for an even lower calorie cake . It’s delicious I share this with friends at work and family. And when you are dieting and dying for cake this is a great choice
Hi!!! question.. when you say to substitute coconut oil with apple sauce would the measurements be the same (1/3 cup – 75g) or would it be a different measurement?? I want to make this recipe so bad but maybe skip on any type of oil/butter. Thank you so much!! ^.^
Hi Mayela, yes, you can substitute the same amount of applesauce for the coconut oil.
Used all whole wheat, half sugar. Very yum!
Hi! This is my favorite banana bread to make. It is so delicious! For some reason, though, the center of my loaf is always raw. Do you have any suggestions?
Hi Erin, is your pan a 9×5? If it is a different size, that can change the baking time. I’d also check your oven with a thermometer to make sure it is at temperature. Use the toothpick test to see if it comes out clean. It can take up to 60 minutes. I only need to extra 5 when I’ve added mix ins like nuts, but don’t be afraid to leave it in for a full hour. I hope this helps.
I’ve made this recipe a couple of times, subbing 1/2 cup monk fruit erythritol blend for maple syrup and it’s perfection every time! Thank you for this yummy recipe!
Very good and easy to make, amazing that there’s no refined sugar
LOVE this recipe! So easy to follow becuase the ingredients list corresponds with the steps. Tastes amazing
Great recipe, my husband loves it. I’ve made it multiple times and received lots of compliments!
Made this twice in one day it was that good! I added some chopped walnuts and chocolate chips. One loaf was made with honey and one with maple syrup, both excellent!
This is the BEST recipe for healthy banana bread!! I use coconut oil, honey, almond flour and add walnuts, it is always a big hit :)
I’ve made this banana bread twice now and it’s turned out really well. Just love it. Thank you.
I’ve never left a recipe comment before…but I make this banana bread every week for my kids’ lunches and have for the last 10 years! They love it and so do their friends. You would think every week they would get tired of it but instead they look forward to every fresh loaf. I use 1/3 cup olive oil and 1/3 cup maple syrup and choco chips, whole wheat flour. It feels like a healthy but sweet treat. Thank you!!
I’ve used this recipe dozens of times and it comes out perfect! My family loves it.
The unrefined coconut oil is perfect!
Amazing and simple banana bread recipe! My go to when I want a healthy and delicious breakfast. I made this in muffin form was great too!
This is my absolute favorite banana bread recipe! Just wondering, has anyone used water instead of milk, curious how it comes out.
My tooth pick came out clean but this morning I went to slice the loaf and the top center was mush! After sitting out over night, is it safe to try and cook the slices on low broil to still consume?
I used a stoneware pan that usually cooks faster. And the element is on the top.
Totally baffled!
Hi Jodi, I’m sorry this didn’t turn out for you. What is the size of your loaf pan? That can make a difference in the outcome. Food safety practices recommend cooking to an internal temperature of 165F to eliminate harmful bacteria, so I would make sure you do that if you try it, but it is hard to say what impact that will have on the final project.
Looking for a healthy choices recipe for my diabetic husband to use with my breadmachine. I will try this and report back. Once I have 2 over ripe bananas :-)
This is my go-to banana bread! It’s so wholesome yet so luscious. I use olive oil for the oil, maple syrup (a little less than 1/2 cup, more like 1/3) for the sweetener, and unsweetened almond milk or soymilk for the milk. I also always add walnut pieces.