This Easy, Healthy Sugar Free Banana Bread is the best recipe made with unsweetened applesauce along with a little oil. It is super simple to throw together using pantry staples. Serve it for breakfast or dessert!
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I love to eat this low sugar bread for breakfast! It’s just so comforting and a great way to start the day. Grab your favorite warm beverage and enjoy!
Is Homemade Banana Bread Good For You
It really will depend on how you make it. Growing up, my mom made a recipe for me that called for 5 tablespoons of butter and 1/2 cup of pure honey. Those are loaded with fat and sugar.
Most recipes I see have 300+ calories and 50+ grams of carbs per slice. If you want to eat a slice of bread for breakfast or as a treat a few days a week, those macros are not very friendly.
I came up with this recipe to round out the macros and nutrition facts profile a bit.
What Type of Bananas to Use
You want to use very ripe bananas, perhaps overripe. People often make banana bread when they have bananas that are going bad.
I usually can’t find these in stores, so I have to wait sometimes up to a week for the bananas to ripen at room temperature. The bananas should have black or brown streaks in them or they should be mostly black.
You want to use ripe bananas because they are sweeter and have more sugar.
How to Properly Measure Flour
- Dump your flour into a bowl so that you can stir and loosen it up. You never want to stick your measuring cup directly into a bag of flour.
- Spoon the flour into a measuring cup.
- Level it off in the cup using a knife.
If you stick your measuring cup directly into the bag, it will pack flour into the cup and result in you using too much. The flour needs to have air when measuring. Check out more tips on How to Measure Flour here.
How to Make Healthy Banana Bread
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Combine the mashed bananas, vanilla extract, melted butter, beaten eggs, and unsweetened applesauce in a small bowl.
- In a separate large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sweetener, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.
- Add the wet ingredients (banana mixture) to the dry ingredients (flour mixture). Mix with a silicone or wooden spoon. Don’t overmix. Ensure the flour is incorporated, but the mix should be lumpy.
- Pour the banana bread batter into a loaf pan.
- Bake.
Why Baking Soda Instead of Baking Powder
When baking soda is combined with something acidic, it reacts, which aerates and raises baked goods much like yeast. I learned this when making my Air Fryer Chocolate Chip Cookies. In that recipe, combining lemon juice with baking soda, resulted in soft cookies with a puff.
Usually when baking soda is used in a recipe, it’s also used with something acidic like buttermilk, lemon juice, or applesauce (which is used in this recipe).
Recipes like muffins, biscuits, and quick breads need a leavening agent like baking soda to give them the right texture.
Baking powder is often used when there aren’t acidic ingredients in the recipe.
To substitute baking soda for baking powder you will need 4 teaspoons of baking powder. 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda = 1 teaspoon of baking powder. You can read more about Baking Soda vs Baking Powder here.
What Sweetener To Use
I use organic monkfruit in this recipe to keep it sugar free, specifically this Monkfruit Baking Sweetener. It measures 1:1 like table sugar and works great for baking. It has zero calories, no carbs, and won’t spike your blood sugar.
Feel free to use your preferred sweetener. If you use stevia or artificial sweeteners, you will have to convert the servings. Since monkfruit measures 1:1 you can follow your standard method for calculating it.
If you aren’t concerned with the amount of sugar used, you can also use 1/2 cup of pure honey.
If you prefer to use maple syrup, use 1/3 cup.
How to Substitute Butter
I like the flavor of butter in my bread, but I cut the standard amount of butter typically used in half but using unsweetened applesauce.
I don’t recommend substituting all the butter outlined in this recipe for more applesauce. You will need some oil. You can substitute the 2 1/2 tablespoons of butter for coconut oil or avocado oil instead.
Can You Make Them Into Muffins?
Yes, reduce your oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick returns clean.
Optional Additional Add-Ins
- Sliced Bananas
- Sugar-Free Chocolate Chips
- Walnuts
- Pecans
- Dried Fruit
Freezer Tips
The bread should be fully cooled prior to freezing. Wrap the bread in foil and then place it in a sealable bag. It will freeze for up to 4 months.
Thaw the bread in the refrigerator or at room temperature.
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Easy, Healthy Sugar Free Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups mashed, ripe bananas The number of bananas will vary based on size. This is usually 2-4 bananas for me. I like to leave some banana chunks in mine.
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted melted butter
- 2 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
- 2 eggs beaten
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 cup sweetener 1/2 cup results in bread that is not overly sweet. If you like sweet bread use 3/4 of a cup.
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Line a 9×5 loaf pan with parchment paper.
- Combine the mashed bananas, vanilla extract, melted butter, beaten eggs, and unsweetened applesauce in a small bowl.
- In a separate large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sweetener, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.
- Add the wet ingredients (banana mixture) to the dry ingredients (flour mixture). Mix with a silicone or wooden spoon. Don't overmix. Ensure the flour is incorporated, but the mix should be lumpy.
- Pour the banana bread batter into the parchment paper lined loaf pan. Smooth the batter throughout the pan.
- Bake for 40 minutes.
- Open the oven and tent the pan with foil. Don't fully cover, loosely tent (it shouldn't touch the bread). This will prevent the bread from browning too much on the top as the interior continues to bake.
- Bake for an additional 15-20 minutes. Test if the bread has finished by inserting a toothpick and testing if it returns clean.
- Allow the banana bread to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing it and transferring it to a cooling rack. Allow it to cool for at least an additional 15 minutes.
Notes
- You can use a potato masher to mash the bananas.
- You can substitute white, whole wheat flour in this recipe. This recipe has not been tested for gluten-free alternatives. You cannot use almond flour or coconut flour.
- For the monkfruit sweetener, I prefer to use the baking sweetener as it bakes the best. You can also use granular.
- You can substitute baking soda for 4 teaspoons of baking powder. Results will vary.
- Using all butter in the recipe instead of applesauce does result in bread that is moister, but also more fat. Do what works best for you.
- Using parchment paper makes it easier to remove the bread when it has finished baking. You can also grease the pan.
- You can substitute 1/2 cup of honey or 1/3 cup of pure maple syrup in the recipe.
- If you substitute a sweetener like honey in the recipe the macros are: Cals: 251 Fat: 7G Carbs:40G Protein: 4G
Nutrition (displayed with net carbs)
Rachel Kachun
Sunday 25th of August 2024
Wow I just baked your banana bread exactly as written and it’s wonderful! Not too sweet and it’s dense and cake-like, not dry at all. I will be making this a lot. Thank you!!!
staysnatched
Monday 26th of August 2024
You're welcome!
Gayla Martin
Wednesday 17th of April 2024
Love this recipe! I have made it several times and it's always delicious. I do change the flour to 1 cup white all purpose flour and 1 cup almond flour to cut down on carbs for my diabetic husband. It comes out super moist and that may be because of the almond flour but it tastes delicious! I use 3/4 cup erythritol/monk fruit sweetner because we like it sweet but that's a personal preference. I use the butter and applesauce for less fat. It's not super low carb or super low calorie but definitely much healthier. This is one lower carb sweet my husband loves.
staysnatched
Thursday 18th of April 2024
Sounds good!
Adriana
Saturday 17th of February 2024
Can you use splendaadr
staysnatched
Saturday 17th of February 2024
Sure, if that's what you like.
Jackie
Monday 9th of October 2023
Very good. I made it half whole wheat and half low gluten unbleached white. I think next time I'll add walnuts...because there WILL be a next time LOL. It's also helpful that it uses up so many overripe bananas!
staysnatched
Tuesday 10th of October 2023
I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Anna
Sunday 3rd of September 2023
How long does it bake in the loaf pan? I couldn't find that part🙃
staysnatched
Monday 4th of September 2023
It’s listed in step 7 of the recipe card which is directly above where you typed this question.