The Best Low Sugar Banana Oatmeal Bread (even great gluten free!)
My kiddos are pretty easy to please when it comes to baked goods, but banana bread is a real fave. The only problem is getting bananas to last long enough to actually get made into banana bread. ;) This has been our go-to recipe for years. It contains no refined sugar, but is still very naturally sweet! It works with whole wheat flour or with a 1:1 gluten free flour mix.
This bread can be easily made as muffins, mini-loaves, or as a full sized bread loaf. We often double it and sometimes add chocolate chips to make it more of a dessert! If you adjust it to be muffins or mini-loaves, take note that you will need to adjust your time.
Since this is low in refined sugar, it packs a healthier punch than your typical banana bread recipe, and leaves everyone asking for another slice.
The Best Banana Oatmeal Bread Recipe
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour or 1:1 gluten free flour mix (we like Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 baking flour)
1/2 cup coconut sugar (or organic cane sugar)
3/4 cup oats
1tsp baking soda
1tsp salt
3 very ripe bananas – mashed
2 eggs
1/4 cup honey
1tsp vanilla
1/2 cup plain yogurt (I prefer whole milk) – if you don’t have plain, use vanilla yogurt and omit the tsp of vanilla
1/3 cup buttermilk OR 1/3 cup milk with a squirt or two of lemon juice (allow it to sit a few minutes before mixing it in)
1.Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. While it preheats, mix the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet in another. Slowly combine the two, mixing them together thoroughly.
3. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan.
4. Bake for 45 minutes or until you can insert a toothpick in the center and it comes out dry.
5. Allow the bread to cool in the pan for at least five minutes (which will be ridiculously difficult, because it will smell so.darn.good.) before removing it.
But this recipe doesn’t come without warning: Be careful, you might not be able to hold yourself back from eating the entire loaf in one day.
I can’t wait to make this!
I just made these! AMAZING! Thanks for the recipe.
SO glad you liked it!! thanks for telling me :)
do you think regular oats would work? I never buy quick-cooking.
nicole, i have no idea why i wrote quick oats – i just fixed it. i don’t actually use quick oats either! sheesh… can i blame it on six months of not sleeping through the night? ;)
ok, great! and yes, for sure. I blame lots on that myself. heehee.
Made this tonight! Delicious! ;)
so glad you liked it, nicole! :)
My kids aren’t picky about most things, but for some reason they don’t like quick breads. But they often love the same recipe in the form of mini muffins (weird, huh?) I made your recipe into mini muffins and it worked great. I’m excited to have another option for snacks/lunch boxes/etc. Thanks!
so glad your kiddos liked it! thanks for telling me :)
I made this yesterday and it was pretty good. After sitting for less than half a day it’s really good. It got more moist after I wrapped it up (like banana bread seems to always do). It’s not as sweet as some banana breads I’ve made but still really good. I added walmuts to mine which I like. Thanks for the healthy recipe!
thanks, christy! yes, it isn’t as sweet as most banana breads – but i like that about it. we also don’t eat a lot of sweets, so it actually tastes sweet to us. :) glad you enjoyed it!
I found this recipe this morning and thought this could be interesting. So I made it and it is delicious! You are right, it is not as sweet as traditional, but it is healthier and very good. I will definitely made this again. Thanks for sharing this recipe with us!
My husband LOVED IT! best recipe ever. He said “we found the one”.
I just made this! I actually substituted the sugar with splenda brown sugar and added about 3/4 cup of chopped nuts. I also used a muffin pan instead of the loaf pan. DELISH!