Healthy Banana Bread
This banana bread is much healthier but you will never know it. You can feel confident that you are feeding your family something not only delicious, but also super healthy.
- I used 75% less sugar in this recipe. It tastes just like regular banana bread, only not as cloyingly sweet. You can actually taste the banana.
- Instead of white flour, I used sprouted flour. You can also use whole wheat flour, soaked overnight.
- Finally, we are using pastured eggs and grass-fed butter, which are much more nutritious than factory farm products.
Why Make This Banana Bread
I love this banana bread because it's a great breakfast or snack.
Banana Bread For Breakfast
We eat eggs most mornings, but sometimes it’s nice to have something baked. I especially love warm, sweet banana bread with my coffee.
A Healthy Snack for Kids
This also makes a great snack for kids. My children are always starving after school.
I wrote about the importance of a sweet snack after school, called "le goûter" in this post: How to Get Kids to Eat Anything & Sleep Through the Night.
Use Up Those Ripe Bananas
Homemade banana bread is a wonderful way to use up overripe bananas. Instead of throwing away bananas that become brown and overripe, just toss them in the freezer.
When you have 3 or 4 bananas, just pull them out of the freezer and you’re ready to make banana bread.
It’s actually best to do it this way because after the bananas have been frozen, they just pop right out of the peels after you let them defrost on the counter for an hour or so. This way, you don’t even have to mash them.
Why This Banana Bread Is Healthier
Unfortunately, most banana bread recipes are not very healthy. This is mainly due to the lack of nutrition in the flour:
- Refined white flour has almost no nutrition. Whole wheat flour is much more nutritious.
- However, whole wheat flour that is unsoaked/unleavened isn’t good for you due to the phytic acid which blocks mineral absorption.
- Read more about how phytic acid causes tooth decay here.
Banana Bread with Sprouted Flour
To make a truly healthy banana bread, I recommend using sprouted flour.
Sprouted flour is not only more nutritious than white flour, but it is also more digestible.
For this recipe, I used whole wheat sprouted flour.
Note: Be sure to store your sprouted flour in the fridge or freezer.
Soak Whole Grain Flour
If you don't have sprouted flour, you can soak whole wheat flour overnight to improve the digestibility and nutrition. It's very easy.
To soak flour, just measure the 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour into a bowl, add 1 tablespoon of yogurt or whey, stir together, cover with plastic wrap or a towel and let sit overnight.
75% Less Sugar
Also, most banana bread recipes are way too sweet. When I want to eat banana bread, I don’t want an overly sugary dessert. I want something in between bread and a pastry. I like to be able to taste the banana in banana bread — not a wall of sugar.
I based this recipe on the one from Simply Recipes, but I modified it to use 75% less sugar. I also used maple syrup instead of refined sugar.
Maple syrup is a low-glycemic sweetener and it’s much more nutritious than refined sugar.
Grass-fed Butter & Pastured Eggs
This banana bread is also healthy because I used real grass-fed butter and a pastured egg — farm-fresh foods that are much more nutritious than butter and eggs from factory farms.
A pastured egg has 5 times more vitamin D than battery eggs.
Read more about how to buy pastured eggs.
Healthy Banana Bread
Ingredients:
Ripe bananas, mashed (4) — or just defrosted from the freezer
Grass-fed butter (1/4 cup)
Maple syrup (1/4 cup)
Pastured egg (1)
Vanilla extract, preferably organic (1 tsp)
Baking soda (1 tsp)
Sea salt (1 pinch)
Sprouted flour or whole wheat flour, soaked overnight (1 1/2 cups)
Equipment:
Saucepan
Wooden spoon
Loaf pan (enamel, glass or stainless steel – not aluminum)
Toothpick
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Melt the butter on low heat in a saucepan. You also use ghee, and/or you can substitute coconut oil for half of the butter.
3. Take the ripe bananas out of the freezer and let them defrost for an hour or so. Then peel and place in a bowl. If you are not using frozen bananas, you will need to mash them a bit.
4. Mix the butter in with the bananas, then beat in the egg.
5. Add the vanilla, maple syrup, baking soda, and sea salt.
6. Finally, mix in the sprouted flour. You don’t need a mixer for this — you can just use a wooden spoon.
7. Butter a loaf pan and spoon the banana bread mixture in.
8. Bake for about an hour.
9. When a toothpick comes out clean, remove from oven. Let it cool for about 15 minutes before serving.