Healthy Greek Yogurt Banana Bread

Making banana bread is probably the best way I can think of to deal with overripe bananas. I am actually a big fan of this American-born dessert and I was quite surprised to find out that there is a National Banana Bread Day in the States…

Conventional banana breads are usually calorie bombs high in fats and sugar. In fact, there is no point adding much sugar since overripe bananas are quite sweet already. So I came up with this healthier recipe of banana bread using Greek Yogurt. Each serving only contains about 1/2 calories a piece of banana bread from Starbucks (which is about 490 cal). It is a sweet treat you can enjoy without feeling guilty 🙂

(Calories may vary depending on the Greek yogurt you use)

Ingredients (makes 1 loaf):

• 250g overripe bananas
• 160g ap flour/pastry flour (≈1 cup)
• 2 large eggs
• 2tsb vegetable oil (≈9g)
• 100g Greek Yogurt*
• 35g sugar*
• 1 tsb baking soda
• 1/2 tsb baking powder
• ground cinnamon optional

*I used 0% fat vanilla Greek yogurt. You may add more sugar if desire.

Instructions:

1. Mash bananas, whisk eggs.
2. Combine all the wet ingredients (i.e.:Greek yogurt, eggs, mashed banana, vegetable oil).
3. Mix all the wet ingredients.
4. In another large bowl, combine dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar and ground cinnamon).
5. Stir and mix dry ingredients.
6. Combine all the ingredients with a spatula, do not overmix. The batter should be very thick.
7. Pour batter into a non stick loaf pan, sprinkle rolled oats if desire. Bake at 350ºF for 40-45 min.
8. It’s done when a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove banana bread from the pan and let cool.

The banana bread made using this recipe is moist, light, subtly sweet and, of course, delicious. Now you can enjoy banana breads without being afraid of the fat and sugar conventional ones contain. Healthy can be delicious (I said this so many times)!

You can also incorporate raisins, chocolate chips, etc. into the batter before baking.