Reasonably Healthy Banana Bread

I’ve always had a problem with banana bread. For me, it is too sweet for breakfast, but not sweet enough for dessert. This leaves it firmly in afternoon snack territory– but the idea of baking something only to be a snack (rather than a proper, killer dessert) has always left me uninspired. But with some bananas in my kitchen that were about a day away from fruit flies, I set to work, and came up with this reasonably healthy banana bread recipe.

I jiggered a Smitten Kitchen recipe to give it more fiber, more protein, and less sugar– and to accommodate what I had in my pantry. Instead of white flour, I used whole wheat; instead of butter, I used olive oil. I added quinoa and flaxseeds, but you could skip them, or top with oats for extra fiber.

The result is a reasonably healthy, easy, moist banana bread that is lightly sweet, slightly wheaty, and a bit crackly. A thick slice for breakfast with a cup of coffee can tide me over until lunchtime– without giving me the sugar crash that I get from most classic banana bread recipes.

If your overripe bananas need a place to call home, try this healthy banana bread recipe.

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Reasonably Healthy Banana Bread

Makes one 9×5-inch loaf
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients

4 large overripe bananas (3 in the bread, 1 for optional decoration)
1 large egg
1/3 cup (78ml) olive oil
scant 1/3 cup packed (50g) light brown sugar
2 tablespoons (40ml) maple syrup or agave nectar (or skip and add an extra tablespoon of brown sugar!)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1 heaping teaspoon ground cinnamon
heaping 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Pinch of ground cloves
1 1/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons (195g) whole-wheat flour
2 tablespoons (20g) flaxseeds, optional (I had them around and wanted more fiber)
1/4 cup (50g) uncooked quinoa, rinsed (to remove bitterness), or millet

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350F (176C) and butter a 9×5-inch (22×12-cm) loaf pan.

In the bottom of a large bowl, mash 3 bananas with a potato masher or fork until virtually smooth but a few tiny lumps remain.

Whisk the egg into the mashed bananas, then whisk in oil, brown sugar, syrup and vanilla extract. Sprinkle baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves over mixture and stir until combined. Stir in flour and flaxseeds until just combined, then stir in quinoa.

Pour mixture into prepared pan. Take your final banana and slice a couple of thin slices to lay across the top of the batter (or just cut the banana in half… you’ll just have more roasted banana on top).

Place pan in oven and bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean–about 45 minutes, but start checking at 40, because you want to make sure this is a nice, moist banana bread. Let loaf cool in pan on wire rack before turning it out of the pan.