Looking for a super-tasty, quick and easy treat? A healthy snack that even your mother would love?
Stop right now and make this banana bread recipe!
- 3 ripe bananas, mashed with a fork
- 1/4 cup oil
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1 & 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup wheat germ
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix all dry ingredients first, then mix in bananas, oil and honey. (If you measure out the oil first, when you pour out the honey, it will all slide cleanly out of the cup.)
Pour into oiled bread pan and bake for 20 minutes. This recipe is also great for muffins. Muffins are more like 15 minutes until done. Use a toothpick or knife to check the middle. If it sticks, keep baking.
Recipe Substitutions:
- Vegans can substitute agave nectar or maple syrup for honey, and you can cut the amount of sweetener down to your taste.
- Quinoa or brown rice flour can replace the wheat flour to go gluten-free
- We use olive oil, and have made it with as little as 1 tablespoon of oil for a low-fat banana bread.
- I don’t ever use table salt, which is only sodium chloride. Unrefined salts have a much better taste and a full mineral content.
- For dessert, throw in a handful or two of chocolate chips and shredded coconut!
- We always buy organic if possible.
This is a very versatile recipe. Cut off a few fat slices and take them with you for a natural power bar. It packs very well and makes a great travel food. I just took a loaf with me on an airplane trip, and when I pulled it out to eat mid-flight, half the plane turned around looking for the source of the enticing smell.
You could probably fry it up like pancakes or fried cookies, or spread it thin and dry it, like banana jerky. (Hmm… I think I’ll try that tonight!)
Here you go, Mom… This one’s for you.
Image: ian_ransley at Flickr
Your recipe made me think of my grandmother. She made the best banana bread and I have no idea where the recipe is. I’ll have to try yours. Made my mouth water just reading about it.
Dagny
http://www.onnotextiles.com
organic apparel
Let me know how it turns out. Thanks for reading!
I have all the ingredients, but for some reason I’m hesitant to make this recipe. Hope you had some pictures for the end result…
.-= Mangerati – Fast Recipes´s last blog ..Stir-Fried Bean Curd With Green Beans In Hot =-.
I keep meaning to take a picture and put it up, but somehow it hasn’t happened yet. The recipe is great, though. I made it with a third of a cup of cocoa powder in it for dessert last night, and it was excellent.
I made this last night and yum! I added a splash of soymilk to make it a little more wet. I also sprinkled unrefined sugar on top for a touch of extra sweetness. What a great recipe; I’ll definitely make this again!
Hi, i made this today and it was very good! I made a few small changes. For the 1.5 cups flour, I used 1 c whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour. I also added 1 tsp vanilla and 1 tsp cinnamon – neither of which I could taste in the end. I really like the thickness of this bread. I also added a very small amount (maybe 1/2 tsp) of cane sugar on the top for crunchiness, which turned out great. I’m not a fan of banana bread – I made this for my husband. He thought it needed more bananas – I thought it was perfect b/c it didn’t have a strong banana flavor – just a hint. Thanks for the recipe. Please keep them coming. I am experimenting w/ starting a whole foods/vegan lifestyle and really appreciate the recipes, esp the healthy ones.
While I haven’t tried your recipe, I have tasted one just like it. I don’t think it had much, if any, honey in it though which is probably why it was subpar. I’ll have to try adding honey next time, that must be the missing link.
.-= Doug´s last blog ..What Kind of Cookware Should I Buy =-.
Hi, Natural Papa. I wanted to let you know I linked to this recipe on my natural and organic parenting website. A friend founded the website and she brought me on as a partner. Thanks for the great recipe!
After trying this recipe to take over to a friend as comfort food, I ended up making 3 loaves this past week! Really enjoyable, thanks so much
.-= Elize´s last blog ..stepping through the looking glass… =-.
This sounds fantastic. One of my favorite treats is banana bread. My daughter and I just made homemade bread this weekend (2 loaves) and had a blast. I look forward to trying this one too! I would make it right this minute but we don’t have any bananas.
.-= Jackie Lee´s last blog ..I’m A Home Bread Baking Fool =-.
A timely time to peek at your greatest hits – I have three bananas that are ready for some banana bread lovin’. I love recipes that are so versatile – goes well with my creative kitchen endeavors. I don’t have any wheat germ but perhaps some flax seed meal will be a nice substitute, and maybe I’ll try coconut oil for the oil… wish me luck.
.-= Earth Friendly Goodies´s last blog ..BPA Free Dishes for Kids – Unbreakable and Tough as Nails =-.
I must say, I’ve never been fond of banana bread. But my boyfriend loves it….so I was in search of a new banana bread recipe and came across this one. It turned out amazing. I now love banana bread! The only thing I did differently is I added a little bit of cinnamon. Thanks for the great recipe!
My sister made this last week and I reached here looking for the recipe. She’ll be surprised to see me make this dish for her….Thanx!
I like banana because its simplest fruit to peel before you eat. i like most banana.
Do you have the final product’s photo? I would love to see it as opposed to a bunch of bananas ;P thanks.
Now i will definitely have to put this to the test O_O. i love banana bread.
[...] found this recipe and went from there. Here’s my version which is so insanely good i had to share [...]
hi,
Thanks for this banana recipe that you’ve posted.
My mom made this at she really loves the output…..
Excellent work done…..
This in NOT a vegan recipe – it calls for honey. Please revise.
If you follow the sweetener substitution below the post, it’s vegan.
this recipe is so good! I’m diabetic so I made it with agave nectar and it was just perfect! I’ve been looking for a recipe like this for a long time, thank you for sharing.
I used oatmeal instead of wheat germ to give it a different texture and it turned out pretty good. Although I’m sure its good with the wheat germ!
I’ve tried several different recipes for natural banana wheat bread and this is absolutely the best one! Perfect loaf, first time! The texture is slightly denser than other recipes and my daughter and I really love it!
Honey is an animal by product which makes it non vegan. Try using agave nectar in it’s place. It has the same consistency and sweetness as honey but it is an actual vegan product.
Correct, which is why the very first substitution I list is using agave instead of honey. (Mostly because many of the people I know who would make this wouldn’t think twice about using honey as a sweetener, and don’t usually have agave nectar on hand. Agave is quite a bit thinner in consistency, and somewhat sweeter in taste, so it might also take some experimenting to get it just the way you like it.
I love banana bread! Being vegan, it is sometimes very hard to find this dessert in restaurants or in bakeshops. It is not normal for just any restaurant to provide vegan food. There are only a few of them who offer vegan desserts, let alone banana bread that is vegan. Thank you for sharing us your recipe! I would like to take time out this weekend to make this vegan banana bread. I am so excited, hopefully it turns out well!
This is the best banana bread! Thank you for this recipe!
Yep! Best ever! Totally delicious Banana Bread!
I used maple syrup, light sour cream; added walnuts, and only had wholemeal flour so used that. Yummy!
I doubled recipe and included 1/2 cup of organic white pastry flour (so, 2 1/2 cups whole grain flour and 1/2 cup organic white).. I also used/ included about 1/3 cup no-sugar applesauce and some non dairy, vegan chocolate chips… And, added a touch of raw shredded coconut, cinnamon and some high quality pure vanilla. The sugars I used were both pure maple and agave (as I doubled recipe, I used little less than about 1/2 cup of ea).. it turned out Perfect and is super good…..
Let me just start by saying, I LOVE banana bread! I also really like the things you cover in this blog- you seem like a more than decent man and a great father. Congrats, not many men live up to that name. I’ve recently started watching my weight (for the summer) and this would be a light and delicious snack for me. I’m absolutely going to try this and share!
Like a more than decent man* Please disregard my typo! haha