I feel like every time I open my instagram, the first thing I see is someone making another banana bread recipe. I would love to complain, however banana bread is the greatest of all time. So with that said, I figured I should share my absolute favorite banana bread recipe. I remember the very first time I actually made this bread and it probably was about 10 years ago now. It is truly so amazing and absolutely guilt free.
This banana bread is jam packed with protein and fiber. I use a 50/50 combination of cassava flour and whole wheat flour to get the low carb but high fiber content that I am always searching for. For flavor most banana breads require a bit of butter and instead I replace a lot of the butter content with almond butter and a small amount of Ghee. This adds the flavor and the texture while bringing a whole lot of protein to the recipe. Finish all of that off with a few chocolate chips and a sprinkle of sea salt, this has to be one of the best tasting healthy banana breads I’ve had.
I fell for the same thing all Americans are falling for right now. Buying way too many bananas in hopes that I make a ton of smoothies throughout the week, to only eat something else and watch my bananas brown like crazy. While this would upset me because I don’t like wasting food, I figured I would jump on the bandwagon and make myself some healthy banana bread. I am thankful I did too because within one day all of the bread was gone. It was the healthy sweet treat we needed.
If you are looking for this to be gluten free, that can easily be done by completely using cassava or any gluten free flour you have and subbing it out with the whole wheat flour. The same goes for making this dairy free. The ghee can be subbed out for vegetable oil or you can even use applesauce. Both give the same amount of texture to the recipe, but just a little different flavor. Make sure you have dairy free chocolate chips as well or just leave them out!
That brings me to ghee. While I usually like to leave dairy out of my meals. This bread just tastes so lovely with some sort of butter in there. So to get a healthier twist out of it, I use ghee. A Madagascar vanilla bean ghee to be exact. You can find the one I use here. Ghee is a clarified butter which means it has stripped out all of the milk solids by separating from the butterfat. Leaving this golden, pure fat content that has a high smoke point and a ton of health benefits. No really some health benefits from butter.
Here are some of the things ghee is commonly known for:
- Ghee is an all natural butter substitute
- Reduces your exposure to cancer-causing agents
- Helps moisturize dry skin and hair
- Has anti-inflammatory properties
- Contains heart healthy fats
These are just some of the benefits of cooking with ghee. So for me, I try to substitute it where I can when a recipe calls for butter.
I have actually had a few people ask recently if I have a banana bread recipe up on the page and I knew since I didn’t I had to get one up immediately. Not just because people are at home baking like crazy right now but because I have been making this recipe for so long now and this is always the first recipe I go to when I want to use expiring bananas.
My sister Danielle and I were actually the ones that came up with this mix of ingredients. She probably doesn’t remember but it was a long time ago when my mom and I went to visit her in Tennessee. We had all just went to get matching tattoos (true story) and we came back to my sisters to make some food. She had these french doors in her living room/kitchen so we opened them up to let a nice Tennessee breeze in while we baked. We came across a standard banana bread recipe but we knew we wanted to make it a bit healthier so we sort of improvised along the way. The bread turned out so moist (yes moist) while still holding its structure that I knew the almond butter we incorporated in the recipe was a real winner.
Now, years later, after I played around with the flour content and butter substitutes I think I’ve truly come to the best combination for the perfect healthy banana bread…
Playing around with this recipe for years has definitely come with its mistakes. A few years ago I attempted to make this recipe with a friend in Chicago when we didn’t have the correct amount of flour and the almond butter with the bananas ended up making it impossible to bake all the way in the center. We ended up with a doughy banana bread that we actually had no shame in still eating with a fork directly out of the bread pan.
Fortunately for you all, I have officially found the correct amount of flour, as well as cook time so that this turns out perfectly baked all the way through.
So this recipe is actually pretty simple once you have all the right ingredients. I actually whipped this up within an hour yesterday morning before work. I started mixing around 7am and had nice warm bread to eat during my 8:30 daily meeting. All you need to do is make sure that you have some overly ripe bananas, some good quality almond butter and my absolute favorite ingredient, some flaky sea salt!
Et voila! The best healthy banana bread recipe!
Salted Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 cup cassava flour (or any GF flour)
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 2 large overly ripe bananas (sub apple sauce)
- 1/3 cup almond butter
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 2 tbsp ghee
- 1/4 cup almond milk (sub any milk)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup 60% cocoa bittersweet chocolate chips (I use Ghirardelli)
- sea salt flakes for sprinkling (I use Maldon)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a bread pan with cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, mix together the flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, mash the bananas, almond butter, honey, syrup and ghee. Add in the milk and eggs, continue to mix until all ingredients are incorporated. There will be clumps and that’s perfect!
- Add flour mixture and stir until just combined. Then fold in the chocolate chips.
- Pour batter into the prepared bread pan and bake 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- When done, cool on a wire rack. Slice and serve with a sprinkle of sea salt or a drizzle of honey.
Notes
Nutrition
