This healthier Greek Yogurt Banana Bread is made without butter or oil, but so soft and tender that you’d never be able to tell! Naturally sweetened and loaded with banana flavour, it makes a great healthier alternative to a traditional favourite!
I realized an embarrassing thing the other day. Well, two embarrassing things.
The first was that I somehow managed to miss a few patches when I was shaving my right leg. Which wouldn’t have been horrible had I not had someone else point it out to me two days after the fact. Awkward.
The second was that, for how much I adore it, I don’t really have any banana bread recipes here on Spoons. I mean, I do, but I basically posted them as recipes in passing without really giving them the kind of attention they deserved. So it’s time to rectify that mistake…
Banana bread is one of two three sweet treats that hold a special place in my heart — the other two being chocolate chip oatmeal cookies and Black Forest cake. And if you’re wondering what those three things could possibly have in common, the answer is: almost nothing other than the fact that they’re delicious and basically epitomize my childhood. Well, the homemade baked goodie portion of my childhood, anyways.
I’ve been baking for pretty much as long as I can remember, and almost all of those early baking memories involve hanging out in the kitchen and “helping” Mom make one of the aforementioned treats, with cookies being the most common, Black Forest happening for every.single special occasion, and the elusive banana bread making an appearance on the off-chance that we had some ripe bananas lying around… which wasn’t really that often.
I actually remember not believing my mom when she said that we couldn’t make banana bread because the bananas weren’t ripe enough. My little 7 year-old self saw yellow bananas on the counter and couldn’t understand what more my mom wanted from them. Bananas were bananas… weren’t they? It wasn’t until many years later when I realized that there actually was a huge difference in not only the sweetness, but the texture that properly ripe bananas add to whatever you throw them in. Not to mention the increased health benefits.
Anywho, maybe it’s because it was such a rare occurrence, or maybe it’s because it’s just plain delicious, but banana bread secured one of the coveted top 3 spots in my heart, and it continues to hold that spot to this day. Which makes the fact that I couldn’t even remember the last time I had a slice of it that much more embarrassing…
But like I said… it’s been rectified.
I originally posted a slightly modified version of this recipe a couple years ago, but it pretty much got lost in the archives since I wasn’t serious about food blogging at that point, and had no idea about photography, SEO, social media promotion, etc… which is a shame because it’s really kind of amazing. And by “really kind of amazing” I mean it’s easily my favourite recipe for healthy banana bread.
Soft, tender, subtly sweet, and loaded with banana flavour, you’d never be able to tell that this banana bread is made without butter or oil. Instead, it’s got Greek yogurt to keep it moist, with an extra egg and some coconut sugar to help out.
The recipe calls for 1/2 cup, but you’d be fine cutting that down to 1/3 cup if you like your breads a little less sweet. And this is especially true if you were planning on tossing in some chocolate chips. I like my banana bread without any add-ins, so I passed on the chocolate (I know, I know) and played around with the sweetness instead. Both versions were delicious — it really depends on how sweet you like it!
Happy eating!
I’d love to know if you make this recipe! Leave a comment and rating down below to let me know what you think, and subscribe to our mailing list to receive new recipes in your inbox!
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Greek Yogurt Banana Bread
- Total Time: 50 mins
- Yield: 12 slices 1x
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups (180 g) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 2 large eggs
- 2 medium-sized ripe bananas (200 g or 1 cup mashed)
- 1/2 cup (115 g) plain or vanilla Greek yogurt
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) maple syrup
- 1/4 cup (50 g) brown sugar
- Optional add-ins: 1/2 cup chocolate chips/raisins/nuts
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350ºF (176ºC), and lightly grease a 9 x 5 (23cm x 13cm) loaf pan.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In a smaller mixing bowl, lightly beat the eggs until the yolks break apart. Whisk in the mashed bananas, yogurt, maple syrup, and sugar (if using), mixing until smooth.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, mixing gently until just combined. Do not overmix. If you’re adding any mix-ins, fold them in now.
- Pour the batter into the loaf pan, spreading it out evenly, and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- Remove the bread from the oven and let it cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before transferring it to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Notes
* You can also use coconut sugar.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 40 mins
Recipe was edited in March 2020 but reverted to original by popular demand.
Looking for more healthy banana recipes? Try one of these!
Banana Oat Greek Yogurt Muffins
Flourless Banana Bread Muffins
Strawberry Banana Oat Bars
Flourless Vegan Banana Muffins
Flourless Chocolate Banana Bread
Hi Amanda! I tried your recipe and the Bread turned out perfect. I loved the aromatic flavor of maple syrup. I had been looking for the right recipe on you tube and finally decided to follow this one. I love to bake and I am so glad I found the right recipe. Thanks a tone!!!
I’m so glad you tried it and liked it, Anna! Thanks for taking the time to let me know 😀
Hi Amanda,
tried your recipe and its turned out so great I have to make another one today! I substitute 1/4 of banana with sweet potato to sneak some veggie for my peaky toddler 🙂
Made my own yogurt last night and now I’m dying to try this recipe! Could I substitute honey for the maple syrup? Banana bread is my fav,
Especially for breakfast with some PB on top!
You definitely could sub in honey, Tara! Hope you like it 😀
Hi there,
i tried your recipe yesterday, doubling the stated proportion of ingredients. Unfortunately, despite following the instructions methodically, the banana bread turned out hard and not the texture as in your pix. It was dense. Your comment most appreciated. Thanks
Lovely recipe. I used milk kefir yogurt and still great! Thank you
This recipe looked amazing and the batter looked perfect (I made no modifications) but my banana bread exploded (think volcano oozing lava) about 30 minutes into bake time. I scraped the ooz off the side of the pan and let it continue cooking, thinking maybe it will be uneven but still come out nice. Unfortunately the middle (where it exploded) never cooked. Any idea what the heck I did wrong?
I have 4 mini loaves and a big loaf in the oven now for Christmas gifts for the girls at our gym daycare! Love this recipe so, so much!!!
That’s such a sweet and thoughtful gift, Lauren! Merry Christmas to you 😀
Every quick bread I have made in the past 2 years, I have made with oats. I generally need a bit less oats than flour and they work out perfectly. Using flour wouldn’t have made any difference here…flour soaks up less liquid than oats do! Perhaps I should’ve just left the eggs out so it wasn’t such a flop…or not used any yogurt…it definitely needed less wet ingredients.
Well…I just made this with oats, as I usually make recipes like this with ground oats these days (they turn out very well, BTW) and it was an epic fail. I was a bit iffy about the 1 1/2 cups of flour….and I was right. This was definitely not enough dry ingredients…I should have nearly doubled the amount of oats for this…so I basically have a loaf shaped lump of banana oatmeal. Gag….
This recipe wasn’t made for subbing with oats, so I don’t think it’s fair to rate a recipe poorly when you didn’t even make it. Just a thought for the future 🙂
Oh my!! I just made these! So perfect. I did not have Greek, but I did have probiotic banana yogurt. It worked out fine! I also added a half teaspoon of almond extract. I made muffins and baked them for about 19 min. So yummy!
I cannot not have butter so this was perfect!
Thank you for the recipe! I used a cups to grams converter (I am in the UK) and it turned out really well 🙂
YUM! I just made these. I had a lot of bananas so I made two batches. One I cooked like a loaf, the other as mini-muffins. AMAZING. I love that the recipe isn’t too sweet – just really banana-y.
Thank you!!
Hi Amanda. Thanks for sharing this wonderful banana bread recipe! So easy to make and it came out great! Moist and delicious. This is a keeper. By the way, your pictures are just as yummy!:-) I simply HAD to bake this after looking at them.
Thanks so much for your kind words, Rika! I’m so glad you liked it 🙂
I made this last night and for some reason mine came out very dense and really not bread-like at all! Any idea what could have gone wrong? They do still taste good though!
Made this last night and it was very moist and tasty. Not too sweet even though i used the brown sugar and maple syrup. I used 3 bananas and 1/2 wheat, 1/2 all purpose flour. I will definitely make this again.
Wanted to add- I used all whole wheat pastry flour & it was just perfect!
Another wonderful recipe! I skipped the brown sugar & added 1/2 C blueberries then topped it with walnuts. Again, my whole family loves your recipe! I tried your pumpkin banana bread last week, now this….I’m a believer! Thank you 🙂
Thank you for this healthy delicious recipe. It was tasty and easy to make. Also good thing about this recipe is that there is no butter. A lot of banana bread recipes contain butter.
Hey!
I am watching what I eat since I’m getting close to my wedding date. So I was just wondering how many calories are in this?
I can’t wait to try it out! It sounds absolutely delicious!
-Catherine
Sorry Catherine, I don’t calculate the nutritional info in my recipes, but if you’d like to know what they are, you can enter the ingredients into a calculator like this one to figure them out — http://www.myfitnesspal.com/recipe/calculator
This is the best banana bread I ever made.
I’ve never made banana bread with greek yogurt… how does plain yogurt affect the taste as opposed to vanilla yogurt? Does it turn out tangier? I have a huge tub of plain that I need to use up!
The vanilla makes it a tiny bit sweeter, but I definitely wouldn’t call the plain version tangy — the sweetness from the bananas, maple syrup, and sugar add plenty of sweetness.
My mom asked for a healthy banana bread recipe so I did some searching and came up with yours. It just finished baking so hopefully she will like it!
I hope she likes it, Nikki! I’d love to know if she does!
My sister tried it first and likes it.
so delish! I added pecans it was great!$
Hey there. I use one of those little snack packs of apple sauce to moisten since I’m allergic to eggs. You can’t taste the apple. Sooo good. One of my favorites too.
I’m struggling to get my toddler to eat veggies… But she loves “cake”. Do you think I could add shredded carrots to this recipe? Would I need to modify anything?
Hi, Brandy,
I’m not Amanda and I know you commented over half a year ago, but I thought I’d comment in case you or anyone else was wondering. I’ve made this recipe and added shredded carrots before. I’ve also added one apple, diced small. I’m not the most exact baker when I start modifying fruit quickloaf recipes because I’m not too bothered if a banana bread comes out a little too moist or if I accidentally underbake it a bit, so here’s your warning about listening to me. 😉
Anyway – I usually add around 1/4 cup quick oats when I do that (kind of a scant 1/4 cup if adding carrots and a heaping 1/4 cup for apples, since apples seem like they have more moisture). I’m not sure if my reasoning is right, but I figure the oats will help account for extra moisture from the carrots or apple chunks, and I like the texture.
I also like adding raisins, plumped in water and then cut up a bit so there’s a piece in every nibble. I’m a weirdo who doesn’t really like chocolate chips in things, but raisins are my fave.
Yummy! I want a gluten-free version of this! I have a bunch of gluten-free and refined sugar-free delicious recipes on my blog too like these Blueberry Protein Muffins http://lifeinspandex.com/what-i-ate-today-low-carb-refined-sugar-free-protein-blueberry-muffins/ . Love getting inspiration from you!
Funny, I bought bananas last week for this exact purpose!
Is it possible to leave the maple syrup out, or to substitute it with something else?
It’s not easy to get by around here and I’m actually not very fond of it either.
You could sub it out for honey or agave syrup, Suzanne. Or you could probably just use 1/3-1/2 a cup of brown sugar and add a splash of milk if the dough feels a little too dry.
Thank you for the substitution! I went the extra sugar route. Since Greek yoghurt is hard to find, I used normal yoghurt, no milk and a liiiitle bit more flour. They turned out wonderfully light and fluffy!
Banana bread is on the brain obviously! I was planning on make some gluten free stuff today – YUM! thanks for the reminder;)
That is such perfect looking banana bread – I need to start using baking soda so it rises more like yours 🙂
Can I order a piece (two) plus a homemade cappuccino – and I’ll be over in, say, 20 hours??
DEAL! I’ll leave the door open <3