The sugar-free banana bread recipe in this post is a joint effort. Thad loves his banana bread – to the point that he bakes it sometimes twice a week. Sadly, it’s got a cup of sugar in it, and we all know that I try to avoid sugar, lest my body dissolve into something that can only be described as biological Chernobyl. He’s trying to avoid it too… “trying” being the operative word.
Anyways – while lamenting the fact that I couldn’t eat another slice of his grandma’s beloved banana bread, it occurred to me that I should just search the internet for a sugar free banana bread recipe. Duh. Google revealed this recipe, which I modified pretty heavily to change the sweetness, leavening, and types of flour used.
I was excited. Thad, on the other hand, balked. Not terribly interested in “hippie-dippie” banana bread sans-sugar, let alone whole grain baking, he stuck his tongue out at the recipe and said that he probably wouldn’t like it. And that, dear readers, is where the challenge started. I’ll let Thad explain the rest.
Challenge accepted! First, let me make it clear that everything Stephanie has introduced me to, I have loved. Certainly I would be a fool not to try this banana bread, lest it be amazing; though my sugar craving brain had already made the decision that, ‘Nope, it won’t be good at all’. Just the thought of freshly baked banana bread, with sugar, wafting throughout my apartment sent mad amounts of dopamine careening throughout my neural chemistry. To me, baking anything sans sugar is akin to a water park without the water. In other words, why try?
The question ‘why’ is answered for one main reason: keeping Stephanie healthy, and by proxy, myself. With that thought firmly planted in my heart, we gathered everything we needed. I manned the mixing and baking, while Stephanie remixed the original recipe. It certainly was odd to add vegetable oil, honey, and heavy cream to mashed bananas. It took a while to get the batter mixed, but once everything was together, I couldn’t have been more surprised at how much it tasted and felt just like the recipe I’m used to making.
Baking this bread provided more excitement as it really smelled like my old banana bread recipe. Still skeptical, but excited seeing it rise through the oven window, I started to believe that this might actually taste good. Steph carefully took the bread out and let it cool down before we finally took a bite.
I was bowled over. EHH, more like my head exploded! Now this was GOOD! Between shoving bites in my mouth, I kept stating how great it was. You could imagine Steph’s surprise, and it was warranted. There was no way to tell the difference between what I normally make, and this recipe. The best part of this whole challenge? I could eat as much as I want, knowing that I’m eating something delicious and healthy.
You win Steph… This time!
Steph here again. I just wanted to note that this recipe was surprisingly perfect — so close to your standard banana bread that you might not be able to tell the difference in a blind taste test. This recipe calls for one cup of spelt flour, which makes for a much more fluffy, tender crumb. Honestly, this banana bread is so soft and luxurious that you might slip into a dream state while eating it.
We used Arrowhead Mill’s spelt flour instead of Bob’s Red Mill’s “light” spelt flour, though I suppose you could use either if you like. Bob’s light spelt has a lot of the bran stripped away, making it less healthy and fiber-rich, but it will still work for our purposes here. You can find spelt flour in any health-food store or large-scale natural supermarket (think Whole Foods or Wild Oats) or you can buy it online.
If, though, you don’t have any spelt or don’t want to spring for it, feel free to omit the spelt and use an additional cup of regular all-purpose flour instead — making 3 cups total for the entire recipe. But, you’ll definitely be missing something special.
- Serves: 8
- Calories: 410
- Fat: 21g
- Saturated fat: 4g
- Unsaturated fat: 15g
- Carbohydrates: 50g
- Sodium: 476mg
- Fiber: 3g
- Protein: 10g
- Cholesterol: 64mg
- 4 overripe bananas, mashed to a pulp
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon milk
- 4 tablespoons heavy cream
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup spelt flour (I used Arrowhead Mills regular spelt, not Bob’s Red Mill light spelt)
- 2 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (optional)
- Make sure oven rack is in the middle of your oven. Preheat oven to 350°F (176°C) and grease a large loaf pan.
- Combine bananas, oil or butter, honey, vanilla, almond extract, milk, and eggs in a large bowl. Mix well.
- In a medium bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, mixing well. Add to wet ingredients, mixing just to the point that there are no dry lumps. Do not over mix. Stir in nuts, if desired. If mixture seems too thick, add 2 tablespoons applesauce or an additional ½ mashed banana.
- Pour mixture into prepared pan, filled about 3/4 full, and bake 1 hour, or until top is well browned and a cake tester comes out clean. Turn loaf out onto its side on a cooling rack and let sit for 30 minutes before slicing.
This is a great recipe.
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. I particularly enjoy the postings where you add Todd’s point of view. However, I’m disappointed in the fact that this recipe is NOT gluten free. Even the addition of spelt is not gluten free. I have sensitivities to wheat (gluten), dairy and corn and am used to subbing out dairy and I subscribed to your blog because of the yummy GF options. This has shifted and I’ve not seen a gluten free recipe in quite a while. I may still subscribe because I enjoy the commentary as well as the recipes but I will no longer recommend this to my other friends searching for GF recipes.
I love this recipe, especially that it’s sweetened with bananas and just a touch of honey. I have no choice but to avoid white sugar so finding recipes that I can work with always makes me happy. Thanks for sharing my CrockPot Applesauce with your readers. :)
sounds great. we usually sub yogurt for heavy cream in recipes calling for that. seems to me that might work well here — any thoughts?
UMMMM, my hips and tummy thank you!
Just one comment. Why do you use all purpose flour when you don’t believe in sugar. White flour breaks down just like sugar – basically flour = Sugar.
Really? Could you go into details? I mean I am sure by now that white flour isn’t healthy, it’s like glue in mind, could you add another picture to it, I want to stop eating it too. (I don’t eat sugar at all)
It’s a white carb thing – the simple carbs from the white flour, since it’s stripped of its bran/fiber, shoots straight into your bloodstream like a Snickers bar.
This looks great Steph. Tying to be healthier right now, cutting down on sugar and choc which have been eating FAR too regularly. This has just bn bookmarked for a healthy n sweet treat. Thanks!
I have eliminated sugar from my diet. And also collect all kinds of good ideas for healthy sugar free deserts. The only thing is cooking HONEY is unhealthy!!
Really? Why do you think honey is unhealthy? I think it’s a lot more healthy than sugar! :)
This was alright. I’ll admit to using 1/2 cup almond milk in place of the milks list (which total to 1/2 cup). It sure is crumbly and dry in texture.
Yes, that can happen when you substitute out things. ;) When you replace the milk, you remove a lot of the protein and a percentage of the fat, which can cause it to be crumbly. Did you substitute or change anything else?
I mean half of that is plain milk, so I didn’t think it would make a large enough difference. I didn’t alter anything else. Do you think a banana bread made entirely with spelt flour would be good? I might try that
What sort of milk were you using? Full fat, 2%, etc?
Substituting ingredients can play all sorts of havoc in baked goods, which are essentially scientific formulations designed to do very specific things. So if you remove something that may seem inconsequential, like half of the milk, you may be reducing the fat content by as much at 20% without realizing it.
While I’d say that replacing half the milk with almond milk would not make it *that* crumbly, if you’re using a low-fat milk (like skim or 2%) then it would be a much more profound change. If you let me know the milk you used, I can help troubleshoot.
An all-spelt banana bread is totally possible, though the texture may be denser. Here’s a really good post about what happens when you swap out spelt in muffins — it’s a good read!
https://veganyumyum.com/2008/02/brown-sugar-and-peach-muffins-spelt-challenge/index.html