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Here’s my take on Healthy Low-Fat Banana Walnut Bread.
I love love love all things banana, which becomes quite obvious when you take a look at all the banana recipes I’ve posted here on Simple Nourished Living. I especially love banana nut bread and have tried dozens of different banana bread recipes from simple to complicated through the years.
These days I’m having fun trying to make my favorite foods lighter and healthier and as simple as possible, without sacrificing flavor. Or texture—which can be a real problem when you try to decrease too much fat from baked goods.
This low fat banana bread recipe comes from an unexpected source. Not from my Weight Watchers cookbooks or Ellie Krieger cookbooks, but from my very first cookbook—The Fannie Farmer Cookbook (affiliate link) by Marion Cunningham.
Recipe Notes
Marion describes this low fat banana nut bread as pure and simple banana bread, heavy, moist and dark. And she is so right.
This recipe doesn’t call for any special ingredients usually associated with low fat baking. No egg whites. No applesauce. All the moisture necessary comes from lots of ripe mashed bananas.
The only fat in the recipe comes from the egg yolks and walnuts—two very healthy sources of fat, in my opinion.
I tweaked the recipe slightly. Instead of using 2 cups of all-purpose flour, I used 1 cup all-purpose and 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour, which is finer in texture than regular whole wheat. I also swapped out 3/4 cup of sugar for 1/2 cup of light brown sugar and cut the amount of nuts in half.
For the best banana bread make sure your bananas are very very ripe.
I don’t think you’d ever guess that this banana nut bread is low fat. If you like moist and dense banana bread, you’re going to love this one.
I enjoyed a slice spread with peanut butter and topped with banana slices for breakfast this morning. It was one of the best peanut butter and banana sandwiches ever.
How Many Calories and WW Points in this Low Fat Banana Nut Bread?
According to my calculations, each slices has about 154 calories
To see your WW Points for this recipe, track it in the WW App!
(You must be logged into WW on a smartphone or tablet.)
4 SmartPoints (Green plan)
4 SmartPoints (Blue plan)
4 SmartPoints (Purple plan)
4 PointsPlus (Old plan)
If you’ve made this Banana Nut Bread, please give the recipe a star rating below and leave a comment letting me know how you liked it. And stay in touch on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for the latest updates.
Healthy Low Fat Banana Nut Bread Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 large ripe bananas, well mashed (1-3/4 cups)
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350F degrees and grease a 9×5-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, whole wheat pastry flour, sugar, salt and baking powder 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 1 hour 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.
Notes
(Must be logged into WW on a smartphone or tablet.) 4 SmartPoints (Green plan) 4 SmartPoints (Blue plan) 4 SmartPoints (Purple plan) 4 PointsPlus (Old plan) My loaf took about 1 hour and 5 minutes to be done. It was still a little underdone at 1 hour. This low fat banana bread is great warm or cooled, however you like it best.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Source: The Fannie Farmer Cookbook (affiliate link) by Marion Cunningham
Appreciate it for sharing your amazing website
has anyone lost weight eating this bread to much sugar and carbs for me
I have made your ‘Low Fat Banana Nut Bread’ many times. The bread truly is fantastic. I have saved your recipe b/c it really is a winner. Sometimes my crowd demands a treat, so I’ll put in one cup of chocolate chips and everyone loves it even more!
I imagine you send out wonderful food from your kitchen. Thank you for sharing 🙂
I have made your ‘Low Fat Banana Nut Bread’ many times. The bread truly is fantastic. I have saved your recipe b/c it really is a winner. Sometimes when my crowd demands a treat, so I’ll put in one cup of chocolate chips and everyone loves it even more!
I imagine you send out wonderful food from your kitchen. Thank you for sharing 🙂
Thanks for taking the time to let me know how much you and your crowd enjoys my low fat banana nut bread. I really appreciate and love the idea of adding chocolate chips. Everything is better with chocolate 🙂
Hiya! This recipe looks amazing! Just what I was looking for:) This may seem obvious but just to clarify, does 1-3/4 cups of mashed bananas mean one and three quarter cups of banana? Or does it mean between three quarters and one cup of banana? Thanks!
Hi Yan. It means 1 cup of mashed banana AND 3/4 cup mashed banana. Hope this helps.
I have made this 4 different times now and my kids love it! I did add about a teaspoon of vanilla and I can’t find whole wheat pastry flour where I live so I just used regular whole wheat flour. This last time I didn’t have enough bananas so I used 2 bananas and added enough pumpkin to make 1 3/4 cups plus a teaspoon of cinnamon. They would not let it cool off before they had to have a piece! It feels like a heavy dough (even though there’s no oil/butter) but it turns out great everytime! Thank you!
Hi Shana! Glad your family likes it. I love all your variations, including using part pumpkin. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Made this today with regular all purpose flour and coconut instead of walnuts…so yummy! Don’t think I all ever make the regular butter or oil recipes again!
Thanks, Kelley. So glad you found it yummy!!
Are there any modifications I should make if I use all AP flour?
Hi Kathryn,
No, I don’t believe any modifications are required with all AP flour.
I used the correct amounts of ingredients as well as the right sized pan and only got 12 slices so your points are wrong
Hi Alissa,
The points plus are 4 for 16 thin slices. Another strategy is to cut the bread into 8 slices and then cut each slice in half so that each thicker half slice would have 4 Points Plus. If you only got 12 slices then the points plus would increase to 5.
So there is a total two cups of flour? The comment about substituting with whole wheat flour cconfused me a little. Thanks!
Hi Paige,
Yes, There are 2 cups of flour total. I used 1 cup all-purpose and 1 cup whole wheat.