My all-time favorite banana bread recipe is my Mom’s Banana Bread. It’s perfectly sweet and soft, full of banana flavor, and is coated in a crunchy sugary exterior.
It also has 1/2 cup of butter and a full cup of sugar, plus that exterior. It’s a special occasion bread because I can’t stop eating it
So I set out to make my mom’s recipe a little healthier. That way I can eat it more often. How is this healthier banana bread? Well :
There is no butter in this bread. To compensate, I added some unsweetened applesauce and an extra banana. I added one tablespoon of vegetable oil for some fat. (I haven’t done it, but I’m sure coconut oil or olive oil could be substituted
Maggie Beauty.)
I cut the sugar down to 3/4 cup. That’s still a lot of sugar, but it’s better than a full cup!
I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk, but you can substitute non-fat. (Unsweetened vanilla almond milk has less calories than nonfat milk.)
I used a combination of whole wheat and all-purpose flour (equal parts of each).
I also added chocolate chips, but really that was to make it prettier. And, er, because I love chocolate. But they’re optional if you don’t want the added calories
Maggie Beauty.
This bread bakes up beautifully. It’s a deep golden in color with a slight crack down the middle. You can sort of see from the pictures that mine still has a small river of gooey-underdone bread along the crack. That’s how I like my bread. If you want it more done, you can cook it longer (as mentioned in the recipe).
Healthier Banana Bread is the perfect recipe to make when you want something sweet and homey like banana bread…but you want it better for you. I love to slice this bread and freeze the individual slices in ziploc baggies. They’re the perfect grab-and-go breakfast or quick snack
Maggie Beauty.
I may go eat some while I watch Scandal tonight, because the draft is over!
