Healthy Banana Bread Makeover
JenniferM | On 08, Jan 2010
Many of you who are regulars here may remember the Healthy Banana Bread recipe I posted here back in 2008. After discovering whole wheat pastry flour, here is yet anothe version of a clean eating banana bread.
The ingredients to be swapped out from my other recipe are:
- All-purpose flour for whole wheat pastry flour
- Regular salt for sea salt (and less of it)
- Organic sugar cane crystals for sucanat
- Canola oil for coconut oil
Enjoy!
Ingredients
- Nonstick cooking spray
- 1 1/2 c. whole wheat pastry flour
- 1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 2 slightly beaten egg whites
- 1 c. mashed ripe bananas (3 medium or 2 large)
- 1/2 c. sucanat
- 1/4 c. coconut oil
- A pinch of sea salt (1/16 tsp.)
Instructions
- Coat an 8x4x2-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside. Mash bananas and set aside. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and sea salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine egg whites, banana, sucanat, and coconut oil. Once mixed well, add flour mixture all at one time to banana mixture and then stir until moistened. The batter should be lumpy, so do not over stir. Spoon mixture into loaf pan.
- Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 45 to 50 minutes. Test for doneness by inserting a toothpick in the middle of the bread. The toothpick should come out clean.
- Cool the banana bread on a wire rack for approximately 15 minutes. Remove bread from pan and cool completely on the wire rack.
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Healthy Banana Bread August 17, 2008 | JenniferM
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January 9, 2010
I just made this and my husband and I both scarfed down 2 pieces. Warm and yummy!!
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January 9, 2010
Awesome, Sarah! I’ve got some in the oven right now – can’t wait!
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January 21, 2010
This sounds delicious> Do you have the nutritional info?
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January 25, 2010
I made this today & it was spectacular! It far exceeded my expectations for a recipe this simple. Thank you for this (& for the rest of the site, I must add. I visit constantly).
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January 25, 2010
This sounds delicious! I am so thankful to have found your website, it is full of great info for a newbie clean eater!
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February 13, 2010
I really like how you have included sea salt for better healt results. The older recipe was great, but this one really takes it by far. I will be making it tonight for my kids as well. Thanks!
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March 5, 2010
I made this tonight – so good! But I added some chocolate
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March 8, 2010
Nutritional analysis for 1/12 of the loaf – assuming you can slice it 12 times & eat only that!! Using SparkPeople’s nutritional analysis & subsituting papaya nectar for agave (they didn’t have agava nectar listed on their database):
Cal – 112; Total fat – 4.7g; sat fat – 0.4g; polyunsat fat – 1.4g; monunsat fat – 2.7g; Cholesterol- 0; sodium – 125.3mg; potassium – 79mg; total carb – 16.8g; fibre – 2.2g; sugars – 3.8g; protein – 2.9g.
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March 8, 2010
Oh my gooodness this is the best whole wheat banana bread that I’ve ever tasted!!!! I added two scoops of flax seed and unsweetened coconut for a little fun. Way to go!
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April 7, 2010
This is phenomenal banana bread! My 6 year old loved it. I used 3/4 spelt and 3/4 whole wheat flour, because that’s what I had on hand. Added some walnuts, too. I only made it to 12 slices, so that would be about 200 cals per slice, with the added walnuts. Still not bad!
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I meant 8 slices!
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Hi Leigh, thanks for commenting and glad you and especially your six-year-old liked it!
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May 5, 2010
I wonder if we can reduce the canola oil by half and substitute it with apple sauce?
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Hi Kristine,
I definitely think it would work. I have made banana bread before and used apple sauce in place of oil and it worked out great, but I was using sugar can crystals and not agave nectar. You could try half and half at first to see if you may need to up the agave nectar (I doubt it, but you never know). Good luck and be sure to let us know how it turns out!
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May 18, 2010
Don’t mean to be a buzzkill but everyone should do research on agave. It is just as bad if not worse than HFCS. I was able to pinpoint my skyrocketing cholesterol recently with agave. I had been baking quite a bit with it. B/c in the body it’s seen the same as honey or HFCS (it may come from a plant but it’s heavily processed). I took it out of my diet completely thinking it was the only thing I had introduced into my system in the last year that was totally new. Sure enough, 3 months after I removed it, my cholesterol is back to normal. I am incredulous but there you have it. So, all I am saying is to be careful. Alternatives I am looking at are Coconut palm sugar (to make into a syrup for a liquid sugar) and yacon syrup.
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Hi Conch,
I am so glad you posted your comment because it reminded me of the research I need to do.
I actually just read, like last week, an article by Jonny Bowden about how agave nectar isn’t all “that,” and it’s all been marketing hype (and look how it has worked!).Actually, here’s the article that made me write this down on my research to-do list: http://jonnybowdenblog.com/the-truth-about-agave-nectar-it%E2%80%99s-all-hype/
Be sure to read the comments section on his article as he does talk about some alternative sweeteners.
I have to admit that I did fall for the “hype,” unfortunately. Maybe I should just stick with plain old table sugar. I mean what’s the difference at this point? *sigh*
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May 24, 2010
I agree with not having agave. There is no regulations on the import of it, and from what I’ve researched so far, it is just as bad as High Fructose Corn Syrup. Dr. Mercola (mercola.org) has some great information on agave nectar!
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Thanks Kristen, I will add Dr. M to my list of research resources!
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August 16, 2010
Love the whole wheat flour. I used raw honey for the agave nectar and apple sauce for half the oil…..was delicious! For years I’ve used WW flour in lieu of white flour, even in a fresh pumpkin Bundt cake. Thanks loads!
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September 20, 2010
In the oven now! Thanks for sharing this recipe!
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November 5, 2010
I am new to baking. Can I make these into muffins? If so, d I need to change the temperature and cooking time?
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Actually, I made the banana bread into muffins. DE-LI-CIOUS!!!!!!
Thanks for the recipe! -
January 1, 2011
Hi Jennifer
This recipe sounds amazing, I love banana bread/muffins, they are a great on the go snack. Has any one tried substituting the canola oil for either grape seed oil. I use grape seed oil for all of my cooking/baking that requires oil because it is a high heat oil.
I am hearing comments about Agave, think I will stick to the raw sugar this time and I love the idea of ww pastry flour, I will check our bulk store to see if they have it. -
April 18, 2011
I just made this and it was the most beautiful, moist, and yummy whole wheat banana bread I’ve ever had. Also, hubby approved. I used a bit more than a cup of mashed banana, so as not to waste, but it was not necessary. I think a cup is good too. I did replace the oil with applesauce too and used Bob’s RedMill WW flour (not pastry WW flour). Thought I would mention this in case someone wanted to make these changes. Yummy!!!!!!
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Megan,
Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment and let us know how the recipe turned out for you. I am so glad it turned out so well for you and that it’s hubby approved.
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I have to leave a second post, because that loaf of banana bread was gone the next morning! We did have two of our friends over who had a slice each, but the rest was between my hubby and I. Dangerously amazing! I must say I’ve made pancakes and banana bread now with Bob’s Red Mill 100% WW flour and I don’t think I will ever change to anything else now. It really works well for baking. I’ve used other flours and don’t think it was the recipes that were the problem…I think it was mostly the flour.
This morning I’m turning this recipe into muffins so my hubby can take them on the road for work. I chose to try Chai spices instead of Cinnamon. We will see how that works out. I wanted to add raisins, but totally forgot…woops.
Thanks again for a wonderful recipe
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Hey Megan,
You post as often as you want, no problem!
I am so happy you find them dangerously amazing! I’ll give Bob’s Red Mill a try. I’ve been using King Arthur, but am always open to trying new things. Muffins are awesome and definitely let us know how the recipe turns out with Chai (and maybe the raisins when you remember them…lol)! -
Wanted to let you know that the Chai spice mix that I have (might be by McCormick – not 100% sure) didn’t have the kick I wanted it to. I would maybe use my own mix of spices that are part of Chai Tea, like Cinnamon, Clove, and so on. That would have to happen at a time I can experiment though.
I’m working on other versions…guess I can’t do the same thing twice, even if I love it…LOL. I had strawberries to use up before they went bad, so I pureed them and am going to add them with the mashed banana. It’s in the freezer waiting to be made into bread. I’ll let you know what happens with that too.
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Awww, Megan, I really thought that Chai would do the trick. Mixing in pureed strawberries sounds really interesting (and actually, that sounds REALLY good!), so please do come back and let us know what happens when you experiment with those.
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September 25, 2011
Nice recipe,
I was going to make the below version but I think I will make this instead.
http://www.wascene.com/food-drink/delicious-banana-bread-recipe/
Jen
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December 20, 2011
I just finished baking this. I grounded almonds and dates and added them to the batter. It is super moist. Thanks for sharing!!
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Hi Charisma,
Thanks for sharing! The almonds and dates sound great and I’ll try that with my next batch!
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December 21, 2011
I made these into muffins, and I absolutely love them! (Along with everyone else in my family!) I just wanted to add onto the “agave is bad” conversation…as a person who works in the field of eating disorders, it’s important to know that (with the exception of maybe trans-fats) there are really no “bad” foods, just bad diets! Of course agave nectar is not going to benefit you if you eat it all the time! But neither would carrots, apples, etc. if that’s all you lived off of! Whether is HFCS, agave nectar, raw suagr, etc….it’s all fine in moderation. Of course, if you have personal health problems you obviously would want to stay away from the things that cause issues, but hopefully you get the gist of what I’m saying!
Thanks for the FAB recipe!
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March 14, 2013
If I used regular granulated sugar, would I still use the same amount?
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Hi Brianna,
Yup, it’s a 1:1 ratio, so you would use 1/2 cup white sugar. Also, you can try this recipe too: http://sensiblyfit.com/clean-eating-recipes/baked-goods/healthy-banana-bread/ because it calls for organic sugar cane crystals, which has the same consistency as regular white sugar. Just swap out the canola oil in that linked recipe for coconut oil.
HTH!
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