One of my pet peeves is when people label a dessert as “healthy,” and not because that is grammatically incorrect, but rather because desserts have sugar of some form and that will never be “good” for you no matter how much whole wheat flour you throw in there. Of course, you could say one dessert is more healthful than another or that it will lead to the demise of your health less quickly than its traditional counterpart. But to call a dessert healthful because we use yogurt instead of butter, but then add in 3 cups of sugar, is just plain delusional.
Would you call me a hypocrite if I told you I have a recipe for a healthful dessert? I don’t blame you, but stay with me here. I know of a sweet something that calls for no sugar of any kind — not even my favorite, maple syrup. Don’t be silly, I am not going artificial on you! It is a delicious banana bread sweetened only with ripe bananas and pureed dates. Dates grow locally in Southern California, so we have access to some fantastic varieties here, my favorite being the Medjool. If you are ever craving something sweet, but don’t want to give in to processed junk, take a pitted date or two and stick a pecan in the middle. Amazing. I digress. The dates do double duty as sweetener and add moistness so we cut back on some of the butter, too. The key, though, with any banana bread is using super ripe bananas, well-speckled with lots of black dots (the kind many people toss in the garbage — arrgh!).
Banana bread freezes beautifully and makes a terrific muffin, as well. I adapt this recipe according to the season, adding blueberries in the summer, fresh cranberries in the fall and walnuts or pecans in the winter. This banana bread is not as sweet as the ones you may be used to, so yes, you can add chocolate chips or a drop of maple syrup if you must. Just don’t call it healthy!
Date-Sweetened Banana Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup dried dates, about 7 ounces, pitted
- 1/2 cup hot water
- 4 Tablespoons 1/2 stick unsalted butter or unrefined coconut oil, , at room temperature
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups white whole wheat flour, spelt flour or sprouted spelt flour
- 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
- 3 large ripe bananas,, mashed
- 1/2 cup raw walnuts or pecans, coarsely chopped (or fresh blueberries or cranberries)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 5 x 3 loaf pan. (Can be lined with parchment if it is aluminum.)
- Place the dates in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the hot water and allow the dates to soften for at least 10 minutes. (I usually get the rest of my ingredients ready while the dates are softening.)
- Turn the mixer on low speed and blend until the water has incorporated with the dates. Turn the mixer to medium low speed and beat the dates until a smooth puree forms.
- Add the butter or coconut oil and beat until well blended. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and mix.
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add to the butter-date mixture and mix until just combined.
- Fold in the mashed bananas and walnuts.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 50-60 minutes (I made it in many different ovens with this range of time), or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out barely clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Remove from the pan and cool on a rack.
Like this recipe? Rate & comment below!
Turned out too soft inside while the bottoms were burnt (made in muffin cups). I suspected that was going to happen when I saw how wet the batter was. I used soft Iranian dates and organic sprouted spelt flour.
Oh shoot. That’s disappointing. I’m sorry. I’ve made this recipe at least 50 times, so I’m not sure what went wrong. Maybe your leavening agent was expired or mismeasured?
I tried the recipe as it is and it was a big hit!
I was wondering has anybody tried it with almond flour? Does it taste the same? I’ve never baked with almond flour before so not sure.
Great to hear! You can’t sub almond flour for wheat flour, though — they don’t work the same. I have a good almond flour recipe for a chocolate banana almond flour muffin with chia seeds you can try. Leave out the cocoa powder and sub more almond flour if you want to make them not chocolate. https://pamelasalzman.com/chocolate-banana-almond-flour-muffins-with-chia-seeds-recipe-gluten-free-passover-friendly/
Delicious! I made muffins (8 from halving the mix) with spelt flour, pureeing the dates with the fats (half coconut oil, half butter) in a small food processor, and they are the best banana muffins I’ve ever made – and I’ve made a few. I used black bananas and they are plenty sweet. Thanks!
That’s a great idea to puree the dates with the fats! Thanks!
What size muffins did you make? And how much did batter did you add to each muffin mould? Sorry but I’ve never made muffins earlier so..
Regular, standard muffins. You should be able to get 10-12 out of this batter 🙂
This sounds great. We are trying to eat less refined sugar so cannot wait to try. I currently use dates to sweeten my morning smoothie. Re the banana bread, any thoughts on what to add to increase the fibre without tasting too strong of bran?
Colleen
what about adding flax meal? In fact you can use flax instead of eggs. 2 Tbs. flax meal mixed with 6 tbs. warm water, allow to sit for 15 minutes before adding to batter. Use in place of the 2 eggs. Or add some rolled oats on top for decoration, but they have lots of fiber!
I just tried the recipe for the first time & can’t wait to experiment further. I used a Vitamix to make the date paste & folded in the wet ingredients into that (on low, 1). The dates were Whole Foods Deglets and the bananas were frozen. I throw the ugly brown/black ones in the freezer before they gross me out completely. I also used a touch of maple syrup (freshly made here in my little town). It did take the full 60 minutes. Thanks!
Oh, one more thing… I also used the Earth Balance. And tomorrow morning, that plus honey & almond butter is going on toasted banana bread! Yum!
I LOVE this!!
So helpful to know about your tweaks! Thank you sharing, sounds delicious!
I made this for the first time last night and IT IS SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you!! Next time I’m going to use a few less dates but seriously, best banana bread recipe ever and it’s healthy too 🙂
Yay! Glad you liked it!
I just made this (twice in one weekend) with both whole wheat and then gluten-free all-purpose flour. My sweets-loving son took several pieces without even realizing that it was “healthy.” Everyone loved it. Thanks!
Feels good, doesn’t it?! 🙂 Love that! Thanks for sharing, Karen.
Just made this recipe last night! SOO amazing! Hands down best banana bread I have ever attempted to make at home! I used the Earth Balance butter and pecans instead of walnuts. I also had to substitute cake flour for whole wheat flour(because that was unfortunately all I had) and instead of two cups I only used one cup of the cake flour, then I added 3/4 cup wheat bran and 1/4 cup of ground golden flax-seed mill. The consistency and moistness was undeniably good!
I absolutely love all the changes you made!! Great ideas for everyone! Thank you~~
I just baked this bread this morning. I added some unsweetened coconut and walnuts that I hand on hand and toasted up before adding. I have made alot of banana bread in my time and this is easily the best. How wonderful it has no refined sugar!
Love the idea of the toasted walnuts and coconut — YUM! Thank you!
i have made this recipe several times and every time i can’t quite get the center of the bread to bake fully. Do you know what could be going wrong? or how i might adjust it? the only thing that is different is that i do not have the paddle attachment and may not be getting the dates into a paste but otherwise i am doing everything as per the recipe. i also want to make them in muffins this weekend. is there anything different i should do for muffins?
Let me try to think of what could be wrong. Make sure you’re using the right size pan. If yours is an 8.5 x 4.5, that’s smaller than the one I used and the bread will be too thick. Or your leavening agents could be expired. Or you’re using too much banana. Lastly, your oven might run cooler than mine. Bake it until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with dry crumbs. Allow the bread to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning it out and then make sure you cool it on a cooling rack so that the heat escapes and the bread doesn’t keep steaming itself. That’s all I can think of! Let me know if you have any other questions. I hope it works for you!
Make sure your not over mixing that could be the problem! stir just until ingredients are incorporated!