Make-ahead
Whole-wheat banana bread with walnuts
A tender, one-bowl banana bread made with whole-wheat flour and olive oil. Very ripe bananas do most of the work, so it needs less sugar than many versions.
Photo: Shisma via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (cropped).
Allergens: Contains wheat, egg, tree nuts (walnuts), and milk (yogurt). Leave out the walnuts for a nut-free loaf.
Ingredients
- 3 very ripe medium bananas (about 1 1/4 cups mashed)
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1/3 cup olive oil or melted butter
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/3 cup plain yogurt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 3/4 cups whole-wheat flour (white whole-wheat works well)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3/4 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped
Method
- Heat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan and line it with a strip of parchment paper that hangs over the long sides.
- In a large bowl, mash the bananas with a fork until mostly smooth. Whisk in the eggs, olive oil, brown sugar, yogurt, and vanilla.
- Sprinkle the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon over the wet ingredients. Stir with a spatula just until no dry flour remains; a few lumps are fine.
- Fold in most of the walnuts, scrape the batter into the pan, and scatter the remaining walnuts on top.
- Bake 50 to 60 minutes, until the top is deep brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. If the top browns too quickly, cover loosely with foil after 40 minutes.
- Cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then lift the loaf out using the parchment and cool completely on a rack before slicing.
Storage
Wrap tightly and keep at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the refrigerator for up to a week. Freeze individual slices, wrapped, for up to 3 months and toast them straight from frozen.
Kitchen notes
The bananas should be heavily speckled or even black. Underripe bananas make a drier, blander loaf.
Overmixing whole-wheat batter develops gluten and makes the bread tough. Stop stirring as soon as the flour disappears.
White whole-wheat flour is milled from a lighter variety of wheat and gives a softer, milder loaf than regular whole-wheat flour, with the same whole-grain content.
Kitchen notes, not medical advice. These pages describe how to cook food. They do not diagnose, treat, or promise any health result. If you have an allergy or need a specific eating pattern, follow the advice of a qualified professional.