Tag Archives: banana bread

Healthy Blueberry Banana Bread

My go-to banana bread recipe loaded with blueberries is perfect for easy summer baking.

My new go-to banana bread! You would have no idea it's healthy

There are a few basic recipes everyone should have in their back pocket. A chocolate chip cookie, a basic dependable chocolate cake, and fudgy brownies. You should also have a go-to banana bread recipe. Need something to bring to brunch? Banana bread. A bazillion almost-rotten bananas on your counter? Banana bread. Want an easy after-school treat for your kids? Banana bread.

I’ve made a few and shared them here, but this is my favorite. I think of it as an every day banana bread because it’s made with whole wheat flour and very little butter and it’s super easy to make (no mixer required). Plus, the light and moist base lends itself to any kind of mix-in you would like (blueberries, chocolate chips, cinnamon chips, or even peanut butter chips!) making it extra handy. Have I sold you yet? If so, head over to Meyer’s Styles for the recipe. Save it and use it all the time!

My Go To Banana Bread!

Make something from the blog? Be sure to share it on Instagram with the tag #KeepItSweetDesserts.

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Healthy Apple Cinnamon Muffins

Healthy Apple Cinnamon Muffins

Healthy Pumpkin Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Bake

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Banana Breakfast Bake

Low Fat & Whole Wheat Vanilla Roasted Strawberry Banana Bread

Vanilla Roasted Strawberry Banana Bread

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Quinoa Banana Bread

This hearty but moist banana bread is healthy enough for breakfast while still being sweet enough to feel like a treat.

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Quinoa Banana Bread

I have so much good stuff for you.  There was basically a three-day baking marathon to get ahead on blog posts.  The problem is, whenever I build up some recipe inventory, I have the hardest time waiting to share everything.

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Quinoa Banana Bread

This banana bread isn’t quite the most exciting recipe of the bunch, but it was necessary.  Sometimes you just need a baked good that isn’t going to give you an internal guilt trip if you eat it for breakfast!  Plus, with the bazillion brown bananas on my counter, banana bread was inevitable (my frozen banana collection is already out of control).

What I love about this recipe is that the banana bread came out moist but hearty.  I had a habit of cutting off a bit at a time until a huge slice was devoured, but Matt also enjoyed it for snacks over the course of a few days.  I think his favorite way to eat it was toasted with a smear of almond butter.

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Quinoa Banana Bread

Quinoa flour is an ingredient I’ve never used before.  It’s actually commonly used in gluten-free recipes (there are some here), which is why I bought it in the first place, but I had bookmarked this high protein banana bread on Madison’s site a few months ago and decided to try it out.  Wondering where to get quinoa flour?  I actually found it at TJ Maxx (random much?), but Whole Foods, health food stores and Amazon are probably good resources as well.  I’m looking forward to playing around with it in future recipes!

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Quinoa Banana Bread

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Quinoa Banana Bread
 
This hearty but moist banana bread is healthy enough for breakfast while still being sweet enough to feel like a treat.
Makes: 8 nice-sized slices
Ingredients
  • 2 ounces (4 tablespoons / ½ stick) unsalted butter, softened
  • 6⅞ ounces (1¼ cups) white whole wheat flour
  • 2 ounces (~1/2 cup) quinoa flour
  • 10½ ounces (~1 cup) mashed brown banana (~3 medium)
  • 1⅞ ounces (~1/4 cup) granulated sugar
  • 1 x-large egg lightly beaten, at room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¼ cup milk (any type will work, I used almond milk) at room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 3½  ounces (~1/2 cup) mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees; lightly grease and flour a loaf pan; set aside
  2. Brown the butter: Heat butter in a small heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly, when butter turns to an amber/light brown color, remove from heat immediately (You should be able to smell the deeper more caramel flavor of the butter) pour browned butter immediately into a small bowl and set aside to cool
  3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flours; set aside
  4. In a large bowl, combine banana browned butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla; whisk until all ingredients are combined
  5. Add milk, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; whisk until combined
  6. Slowly whisk in flour mixture and do NOT overmix; when flour is ALMOST combined, fold in chocolate chips; again, do not overmix
  7. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 40-45 minutes or until knife comes out clean from center
  8. Set aside to cool before removing from pan to slice
Notes
Very slightly adapted from Espresso and Cream
Store tightly wrapped with seran wrap for a few days; you can also freeze individually wrapped slices for future snacking
The brown butter isn’t prominent and you could likely just melt the butter instead, but I do think it added just a little something to the recipe

 

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Quinoa Banana Bread

Get ready for more butter, more sugar, and more indulging over the next few weeks.

Make something from the blog? Be sure to share it on Instagram with the tag #KeepItSweetDesserts.

You might also like:

Healthy Blueberry Banana Bread

Healthy Blueberry Banana Bread

Vanilla Roasted Strawberry Banana Bread

Vanilla Roasted Strawberry Banana Bread

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chunk Blueberry Banana Bread

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chunk Blueberry Banana Bread

 

Vanilla Roasted Strawberry Banana Bread that is Low Fat and Whole Wheat

Healthy banana bread full of delicious vanilla roasted strawberries.

Vanilla Roasted Strawberry Banana Bread that is Low Fat and Whole Wheat

It’s Tuesday but I feel like I am still recovering from the long weekend!  I think it has something to do with 13+ hours of driving for a two-day trip, dancing all night long at my cousin’s wedding, and the hotel neighbors that found it necessary to blast music and yell at each other at 2am the night before we had a 6:30 departure time.  That’s always fun.

Vanilla Roasted Strawberry Banana Bread that is Low Fat and Whole Wheat

But all in all, it really was a great weekend!  The highlight was being reunited with my dad’s side of the family.  We realized that it has been about twenty five years since all of the cousins were in the same place at the same time.  There were seven of us then.  This time around, with marriages, and a new generation, there were twelve of us.  While there has been a lot of loss on that side of the family, it is a definite bright spot to see so many of us starting wonderful families of our own.  Hopefully the next time we all meet, it won’t be so long from now and there will be even more of us.

Vanilla Roasted Strawberry Banana Bread that is Low Fat and Whole Wheat

I made this banana bread a few weeks ago when Matt’s friends were in town.  There were a few extra brown bananas on the counter and I had a little baking marathon.  The banana bread wasn’t as big of a hit as the blueberry pie, but it was a good healthy snack and breakfast addition.

Vanilla Roasted Strawberry Banana Bread that is Low Fat and Whole Wheat

The best part of baking this banana bread was the unbelievable aroma from roasting the strawberries.  Next time I’m going to roast extra berries and use them as an ice cream topping.  It was hard to put them right into the batter instead of eating them straight up!

Vanilla Roasted Strawberry Banana Bread that is Low Fat and Whole Wheat
 
Healthy banana bread full of delicious vanilla roasted strawberries. Source: Skinny Taste Makes 8 nice-sized slices
Author:
Recipe type: Breakfast, Brunch
Makes: 8 servings
Ingredients
  • 7 ounces (~1⅓ cup) sliced strawberries plus 1 teaspoon vanilla extract for roasting
  • 6⅞ ounces (1¼ cups) white whole wheat flour
  • ¾ teaspoon baking soda baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 2½ ounces (~1/2 cup lightly packed) brown sugar
  • 1 ounces (2 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
  • 2 x-large egg whites at room temperature
  • 10½ ounces (~1 cup) mashed brown banana (~3 medium)
  • 2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
  1. Roast strawberries; pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside
  2. Toss sliced strawberries with vanilla and spread out on prepared baking sheet
  3. Roast in oven for 20 minutes
  4. While strawberries are roasting, prepare rest of banana bread
  5. Spray a loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray and set aside
  6. In a medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients (flour, baking soda and salt); set aside
  7. In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and brown sugar until light creamy; add egg whites and mix on medium speed for a minute
  8. Scrape sides of bowl; add banana, applesauce and vanilla; mix on medium speed until combined
  9. Reduce speed to low and slowly add dry ingredients just until combined, do not overmix batter
  10. Once strawberries are done cooking, gently fold them into batter; bake for 35-40 minutes or until a knife comes out clean from center of loaf
  11. Allow to cool before removing loaf from pan
  12. Best served immediately; store tightly wrapped in seran wrap up to 3 days at room temperature or freeze up to one month
Notes
Source: Skinny Taste

 

Vanilla Roasted Strawberry Banana Bread that is Low Fat and Whole Wheat

Make something from the blog? Be sure to share it on Instagram with the tag #KeepItSweetDesserts.

You might also like:

Healthy Blueberry Banana Bread

Healthy Blueberry Banana Bread

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Quinoa Banana Bread

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Quinoa Banana Bread

Healthy banana bread with vanilla roasted strawberries!

Blueberry Chocolate Chunk Banana Bread {Gluten-Free}

Gluten-free banana bread that is moist and just as delicious as regular.  No crazy ingredients needed.

Blueberry Chocolate Chunk Banana Bread {Gluten-Free} from KeepItSweetDesserts.com

Besides my tight shorts, another symptom of my less than stellar gym attendance is an abundance of browning bananas in my kitchen.  They are the pre-workout snack of choice in our apartment and when they don’t get eaten it means Matt and I are slacking.

Let’s just say that this recipe and that pie are not the last banana recipes you will see for a while.  Oops.

Blueberry Chocolate Chunk Banana Bread {Gluten-Free} from KeepItSweetDesserts.com

I claimed to have made this gluten-free treat for my sister, but after eating slice after slice of this surprisingly moist and flavorful banana bread, I’ll call myself out.  It may be made with almond meal, but you will not miss the flour at all.  The texture is almost spot-on and the blueberries and chocolate more than make up for anything you could possibly be missing.

Again, I chose the recipe because it is no-fuss gluten-free baking.  Some other almond-meal based desserts I’ve made include Chewy Ginger Cookies and Chocolate Chunk Cookies.

Blueberry Chocolate Chunk Banana Bread {Gluten-Free} from KeepItSweetDesserts.com

Blueberry Chocolate Chunk Banana Bread {Gluten-Free}
 
Gluten-free banana bread that is moist and just as delicious as regular. No crazy ingredients needed.
Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Makes: Serves 8-12
Ingredients
  • 120 grams / 4¼ ounces (~1½ cups) almond meal
  • 100 grams (2 whole) eggs + 90 grams (3) egg whites, lightly whisked
  • 2 fluid ounces / ¼ cup canola oil
  • 170 grams / 6 ounces (~3/4 cup, tightly packed) light brown sugar
  • 200 grams / 7 ounces (~1 cup or 2 medium) mashed ripe bananas
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ¾ teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup blueberries, rinsed and dried
  • ½ cup dark chocolate chunks
Instructions
  1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 5x10 loaf pan with butter or non-stick cooking spray; set aside
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together all ingredients except for blueberries and chocolate chunks; whisk just until combined
  3. Gently fold in blueberries and chocolate chunks
  4. Pour batter into prepared baking pan; bake for 45-55 minutes or until top is no longer wet and a knife comes out clean from center
  5. Allow to cool before removing from pan and slicing
Notes
Adapted from The Wannabe Chef

 

Blueberry Chocolate Chunk Banana Bread {Gluten-Free} from KeepItSweetDesserts.com

For some other easy gluten-free recipes, just check out the gluten-free tag!