This is my go-to, healthy, slightly sweet and crunchy banana bread. It’s the perfect banana bread to be served at breakfast with a slab of your favorite nut butter. It’s not a super sweet and buttery cake-style banana bread that you would sit down and enjoy for dessert. I mean, don’t get me wrong, you can still have this banana bread for dessert, especially if you add chocolate chips, but it’s a banana bread that I don’t feel bad giving my kids for breakfast. This bread is full of healthy ingredients like bananas, nuts, eggs, coconut oil, and soy milk, and with just a 1/2 cup of brown sugar per loaf, I don’t feel bad snacking on one, maybe two slices per day. It’s extremely moist and flavorful, with a crunchy and sweet walnut topping, everything a loaf of banana bread should be.
DETAILS
This is the type of recipe that takes little planning. Most ingredients you probably have on hand, and if you’re like me, you probably have a freezer full of over-ripe bananas waiting to be used up.
For the loaf, you will need all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. These are things that you probably have stocked in your cupboard.
The wet ingredients include 4 mashed bananas, brown sugar, coconut oil, milk, vanilla, and an egg. Feel free to use any milk you have on hand, plant-based milk is completely acceptable. I like to use soy milk because it’s what we drink at home.
I used coconut oil for this loaf, heat until melted, and then cooled slightly, but you can use any oil you have in your cupboard.
If you don’t like walnuts, you can use any nut variety - cashews, almonds, pumpkin seeds, or pecans.
Chocolate is optional, but in most cases, always preferred. I like the balance of adding nice semi-sweet chocolate, something around 60-70%. Because this loaf isn’t that sweet you can get away with adding chocolate and it is not overwhelming.
Banana Walnut Bread
makes 1 - 8.5 x 4.5-inch loaf (9 slices)
prep time - 10 minutes
cooking time - 60-70 minutes
INGREDIENTS
1 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour
1 tsp of baking soda
1 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of salt
1 1/2 cups of ripe mashed bananas (roughly 4 bananas)
1/2 cup of packed brown sugar
1/3 cup of melted coconut oil, cooled slightly
1/2 cup of milk or milk substitute (soy, almond, oat)
1 large egg
2 tsp of vanilla
3/4 cups of chopped walnuts
(optional) 1/2 cup of chopped chocolate or chocolate chips
DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 F.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
In a medium bowl combine the banana, brown sugar, coconut oil, milk, egg, and vanilla.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and combine until just moistened.
Add 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts and reserve the other 1/4 for topping. Add the chocolate if you choose. Combine.
Pour the batter into a greased 8.5 x 4.5-inch loaf pan. Top with walnuts and sprinkle with coarse sugar or demerara sugar if you have it. This is optional. I find it adds a nice crunch.
Place the pan into the oven and bake for 60 - 70 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. When you press on the top of the loaf you don’t want to see any moist batter in the cracks.
Remove the loaf from the oven and let cool. Slice and serve. It can be stored in the fridge for a week.
