Skinny Banana Bread
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Skinny Banana Bread is just as good as your favorite banana bread but adjusted to make each slice a little bit healthier. Applesauce and Greek yogurt lighten up the bread while letting the natural sweetness of ripe bananas shine in this healthy banana bread recipe. Enjoy this as breakfast, dessert, or a snack with no guilt whatsoever!
Banana bread has always been one of my favorite treats for as long as I can remember. I could eat it every single day. It’s easy to make, it uses basic pantry staples that I always keep on hand, and it’s a sweet my whole family can always agree on. Plus it makes a great dessert to bring to any get-together because who doesn’t love it? The only drawback is that more often than not it’s packed with sugar and butter, which I personally think is fine in moderation, but if you want to enjoy it more often this a great recipe to use.
Skinny Banana Bread
Try this one out, you’ll hardly notice much difference between this and your classic banana bread recipe. My husband said he couldn’t even tell the difference and my kids totally loved it! It’s worth trying at least because what have you got to lose, those overripe, generously speckled bananas might end up in the garbage anyway right? Don’t waste those flavors and put them to good use with this delicious and moist, light banana bread!
Now, if you still need some sweetness, feel free to add chocolate chips, pure maple syrup, or honey. If you like nuts, stir some walnuts, pecans, peanut butter, or almonds into the batter as you add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. (Use a low setting if you use a hand mixer.)
I have seen some bakers make this gluten-free by using almond flour, while others use whole grain, regular whole wheat flour, or white whole wheat flour to make it even more healthy.
Spoon your batter from a large mixing bowl into a muffin tin to make this recipe into healthy banana muffins for breakfast and on-the-go snacks. I like to wrap slices or muffins in aluminum foil or plastic wrap and store them in the freezer for meal prep. This banana bread is best served warm, but room temperature has a delicious taste, too!
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Skinny Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups (283g) all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 5 Tbsp (65g) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (50g) packed light-brown sugar
- 2 Tbsp (1 oz) unsalted butter, softened
- 1/4 cup (64g) unsweetened applesauce (I used chilled)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups (352g) mashed overripe bananas
- 1/3 cup (82g) fat free Greek yogurt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8 by 4-inch loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray. In a mixing bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt for 20 seconds, set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric stand mixer blend together granulated sugar, brown sugar and butter until combined. Mix in applesauce then blend in eggs one at a time. Blend in mashed bananas, Greek yogurt and vanilla. With mixer set on low speed slowly add in flour mixture and mix until combined. Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl and fold batter several times to incorporate.
- Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. Bake in preheated oven 55 - 60 minutes until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, and tenting loaf as needed during last 15 - 20 minutes to prevent excess browning on top of loaf.
- Cool in baking dish 5 minutes then remove from loaf pan and on cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container.
- Recipe source: Cooking Classy