easy and healthy one bowl banana bread recipe from whatlisacooks.com

This is a healthier than average banana bread recipe that is very loosely based on Martha’s recipe, which still is one of the best ever. But this version has been tinkered with enough that I think it can be called its own recipe at this point.

There is a printable recipe card at the end of this post.

I have two other quick bread / banana bread recipes posted on this old food blog, this one is a really flexible blender recipe that uses very little sugar, tells you how to adapt it to just about any fruit or vegetable, and comes together without having to soften butter first; and this one here is also similar but specific to banana chocolate chip; so this new one gets the very original name of No. 03.

Those earlier recipes were adapted when my kids were smaller and I was more concerned about refined sugars in their diet. I don’t worry about that quite as much now because they all are mature enough to make relatively smart food choices for themselves, and we believe that a little sweet treat here and there is a fine part of a balanced diet. But I still try to pack in extra nutrients whenever I can, and sometimes the best way to get kids to eat the extra healthy stuff is to hide it in something a little sweet. It’s all about balance.

So let’s talk about this recipe specifically. As I said above, I started many years (decades?) ago making Martha Stewart’s original banana bread recipe. It’s about as perfect as a banana bread recipe can get, and I highly encourage you to try it as originally written. But let’s be honest, part of what makes it so delicious is because it’s practically cake, with the white flour and white sugar. I wanted to try making something that preserved what made that recipe special (it’s so moist!) but see if we could pack enough extra nutrition in that it feels ok to eat as a stand alone quick morning meal, with enough protein and fiber to get them through a school morning.

I also can never get away with making just a single loaf of banana bread, or just a dozen muffins. So when I develop recipes I like to make them bigger than most. If you’ve followed me for any length of time you’ll know that one of my rules to live by is that I always, always, always make extra, so we have enough for leftovers or for the freezer. But if you’re not cooking for 6 people, including four hungry teenagers, feel free to cut this in half.

I like to bake this as muffins for school morning grab and go, I can pack these full of extra goodness by using whole wheat flour, yogurt, eggs, flax and wheat germ, but as long as I also add a few chocolate chips my kids with gobble them up. You can even get away with a little less sugar than this recipe calls for, I’ve cut the sugar by up to half occasionally and they still taste great, especially if you are using really ripe, sweet bananas.

They freeze great, and we love having a stock of muffins in the freezer for easy weekday breakfasts. If I make a couple dozen muffins I will usually leave out enough for a couple of days meals and then put the rest in the freezer.

Here’s what you need to make this banana bread recipe.

But keep reading because I’ll also let you in on a few secrets that most people won’t tell you about baking.

butter (regular salted butter)
sugar (white, brown, or a combination)
eggs
flour (white, wheat, or a combination)
ground flax, wheat germ, oat bran
baking soda
salt
mashed ripe banana
sour cream or plain yogurt
vanilla extract
chocolate chips or nuts
butter or cooking spray for your pans
muffin or loaf pans

Here’s the thing most people won’t tell you about baking - the recipes don’t really need to be quite as precise as many will have you believe. Of course if you are making a very delicate fine cake or a souffle then you probably should follow a recipe exactly, at least the first time you make it.

But this kind of quick bread recipe really is way more flexible than you might think. You can use a variety of types of flour and sugar, you can try it with less sugar, you can add in more or less of the flax or wheat germ, or try oat bran or even a bit of whole oats instead. We like to add chocolate chips, but you could leave those out, or add nuts. In our house we don’t love nuts in this kind of thing, but it is a great way to add extra protein if you like them.

How to make this:

I make this using a one bowl method. A lot of recipes want you to sift all the dry ingredients together separately, but I feel like that’s mostly outdated advice. I mix all the wet ingredients together first, creaming the butter and sugar and then mixing in the rest, and then sprinkle the dry ingredients somewhat evenly over the top, and then combine. It all comes together just fine and you only end up with one bowl to wash.

You can spray your pans with cooking or baking spray, or it’s extra nice if you take the time to smear them with butter. After you fill the pans it’s quite nice if you sprinkle a little extra sugar over the tip, this give the top of nice extra bit of crust, but this is totally optional.

This is a double recipe, so if you make it in loaves it will make two. For muffins it makes about 2 dozen, depending on size of your muffin cups and how much you fill them. Sometimes I make one loaf and some muffins.

I bake this at 350, or 325 convection, for about 1 hour for average sized loaves or about 30 minutes for muffins. You also need to remember that not every oven is the same and not every muffin or loaf pan is the same, so you can’t take the time listed in any recipe as absolute. You need to know your equipment, and if not then you need to be vigilant and check things. When I’m baking a new recipe I tend to set my timer for about 3/4 of the recommend time (so, 45 minutes if the recipe says 1 hour) and check and see how it’s doing. Use a toothpick or a skewer and see if it’s still really wet in the center, check and see how it’s browning or if it’s getting too brown, and decide how much longer you need to go. I’d rather find that something is a little undercooked and needs more time than not check and realize too late that it’s overcooked.

Banana Bread No. 03

Here’s what you need to make this banana bread recipe.

How to make this:

Here’s the full recipe. I hope you enjoy!