WW Recipe of the Day: Simplest Ever Low-Fat Banana Bread
Do you ever feel like everything has become too complicated? Do you crave more simplicity in your life?
I do. In all areas of my life. But especially in the areas of food, cooking, eating, and weight loss.
Easy Healthy 7-Ingredient Low-Fat Banana Bread
I'm feeling the urge to slow down and simplify my kitchen life. To focus on the basics and expand out naturally from there. I'm starting with banana bread 🙂
I love all things banana, but what I make most often with overripe bananas is banana bread.
It seems like every time I make banana bread I feel compelled to try a new recipe so I've accumulated several banana bread recipes through the years. But none has ever satisfied me as much as this simple naturally low-fat banana bread.
It's from The Fannie Merritt Farmer Boston Cooking School Cookbook (affiliate link) (1959), a classic my mother received as a wedding present in 1961. Splattered and dog-eared after decades of use, she still treasures it, so several years ago I found one of my very own on Amazon. If you want to cook and bake like your mother, grandmother, and great grandmother did, then you will want this book!
WW Friendly Low-Fat Banana Nut Bread
Recipe Notes
What I love about this banana bread recipe is its simplicity. Just 7 basic ingredients: ripe bananas, eggs, flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and nuts.
Calling for none of the typical modern-day low-fat baking ingredients like egg whites or applesauce, the only fat in the recipe comes from the egg yolks and walnuts. You can always make it richer by adding oil, buttermilk, yogurt or milk.
For the best banana bread, make sure your bananas are very very ripe.
And be sure to fluff up your flour well and measure it by lightly spooning it into the measuring cup and then leveling it off with a knife.
According to the cookbook's notes, each cup of flour should weigh between 4 and 4.5 ounces. I've had much better baking success since I began weighing my flour with my digital kitchen scale (affiliate link).
Mixing homemade banana bread
How Many Calories and WW Points in this Banana Bread?
I don't think you'd ever guess that this banana nut bread is low fat. If you like pure and simple banana bread, heavy, moist and dark, you'll love this.
According to my calculations, each slice has about 187 calories and:
6 *SmartPoints (Green plan)
6 *SmartPoints (Blue plan)
6 *SmartPoints (Purple plan)
5 *PointsPlus (Old plan)
To see your WW Points for this recipe and track it in the WW app or site, Click here!
One slice will be *4 WW SmartPoints when made with Truvia baking blend (affiliate link) and *3 WW SmartPoints with Swerve sugar replacement (affiliate link) sweetener.
This turns into a serious points bargain when compare it to Starbuck's Banana Nut Bread, which according to my Weight Watchers tracker, will set you back 17 SmartPoints. Enjoy!
Testing banana bread for doneness
20 Yummy Additions and Recipe Variations:
- The Cookbook's notes say that some people like to add to 2 tablespoons melted butter to the batter for a bit of added richness. Oil would work as well.
- Use half whole wheat flour and half all-purpose flour.
- Substitute brown sugar for granulated sugar or use a combination.
- Add a teaspoon of vanilla.
- Spice it up with a teaspoon of cinnamon or cardamom or ½ teaspoon of nutmeg or allspice.
- Add 1-2 teaspoons of instant coffee or espresso powder.
- Skip the nuts or vary them. Walnuts, pecans and macadamia nuts are my favorites.
- Stir in a cup of blueberries, strawberries, raspberries or cranberries.
- Add a handful or two of chocolate chips (I prefer the mini ones) or peanut butter chips.
- Add a handful or two of dried cranberries or chopped dried apricots or chopped dates.
- Add the zest of a lime.
- Add a handful of shredded coconut.
- Stir in ¼ to ½ cup of your favorite nut butter.
- Swirl ½ cup Nutella through the batter before baking.
- Make tropical banana bread by blending in diced dried pineapple, shredded coconut, macadamia nuts and lime zest.
- Add ½ cup raisins that have been soaked in rum.
- Add more richness with the addition of ¼ to ½ cup of oil, buttermilk, yogurt, or milk.
- Stir in ¼ to ½ cup of rum, bourbon, Kahlua or Baileys.
- Add a streusel topping: combine ⅓ cup packed brown sugar, ¼ cup flour and cut in 2 tablespoons of butter. Sprinkle on top before baking.
- Sprinkle 2 to 3 tablespoons of course sugar on the loaf before baking.
If you like this simple 7-ingredient recipe for banana nut bread, be sure to check out some of my other easy, healthy Weight Watchers friendly recipes including Low-Fat Applesauce Banana Bread, Easy Banana Bread "Impossible" Pie Made Lighter, Low-Fat Chocolate Banana Bread, Chocolate Chip Banana Bran Bread and Banana Cashew Mini Muffins
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Low-Fat Walnut Banana Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 large ripe bananas, well mashed
- 2 eggs, beaten until light
- 2 cups (8.25 ounces) all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ cup walnuts, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350F degrees and grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan (affiliate link).
- In a large mixing bowl (affiliate link), mix the bananas and eggs together until they are well combined.
- In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, salt and baking soda until well combined.
- Stir the flour mixture into the banana mixture, just until blended and then stir in the walnuts.
- Put the batter into the prepared baking pan and spread it out evenly.
- Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, or with just a few moist crumbs.
- Remove from the oven and let cool for about 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, remove the loaf from the pan and let it cool completely on a wire rack.
Equipment
Recipe Notes
Source: The Fannie Merritt Farmer Boston Cooking School Cookbook (affiliate link) (1959)
*Points® calculated by WW. *PointsPlus® and SmartPoints® calculated by Simple Nourished Living; Not endorsed by Weight Watchers International, Inc. All recipe ingredients except optional items included in determining nutritional estimates. SmartPoints® values calculated WITHOUT each plan's ZeroPoint Foods (Green plan, Blue plan, Purple plan) using the WW Recipe Builder.
More Healthy Banana Bread Recipes for Weight Watchers
- Easy 3-Ingredient Banana Bread
- Skinny Healthy Banana Coconut Date Muffins
- Low Fat Banana Cake
- Banana Cranberry Muffins
- Skinny Chocolate Banana Muffins
- Moist Banana Nut Bread
- Skinny Banana Oatmeal Muffin and Bread Recipes
Martha is the founder and main content writer for Simple-Nourished-Living.
A longtime lifetime WW at goal, she is committed to balancing her love of food and desire to stay slim while savoring life and helping others do the same.
She is the author of the Smart Start 28-Day Weight Loss Challenge.
A huge fan of the slow cooker and confessed cookbook addict, when she's not experimenting in the kitchen, you're likely to find Martha on her yoga mat.
This post contains affiliate links to products I like. When you buy something through one of my Amazon links or other (affiliate links), I receive a small commission that helps support this site. Thank you for your purchase!
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theresa
I did add 3 tablespoons of applesauce to it but it was very moist. I used Swerve instead of sugar.
Linda Jennings
Thank you so very much for this recipe! I used Splenda instead of the sugar and it was plenty sweet enough for me. I loved the texture: like a dense bread and so chewy. Very satisfying!! My husband also loved it.
Ginger Eckman
I made the banana bread with pecans.
I used 1/2 cup cocoanut flour per batch;
I also used Swerve Grandular & drizzled
Swerve Confectionary sweetener to drizzle vanilla frosting over bread; was
really good;
Debra Thompson
I add 2 Tablespoons of melted butter to mix, 1 tsp of cinnamon,1 tsp of vanilla, replace sugar with eqivalent amount of Splenda product, add a mix of chopped pecans mini chocolate chips. This is my favourite recipe for banana bread.