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!
Really great recipe and delicious results. So nice to find sugar free recipe and dates are a brilliant alternative. I used frozen blueberries without defrosting which worked really well too.
Thanks very much for sharing the recipe.
OH yes, this bread is lovely with blueberries. I’m glad you could appreciate the subtle sweetness of the dates. 🙂
Hi, I like your recipe. I used almond flour. I think I may have used too many dates also because my date egg mixture was very wet. Anyway, it came out like it needed more flour. It was wet inside. Baked,yes,but wet or overmoist. I am at this point not knowing what to do. Any tips?
Hi Helen, unfortunately we cannot substitute almond flour one-for-one with grain flours in baking recipes like this one. The properties of almond flour are so different from grain flours. You can search for and take a look at the recipe for my carrot-banana-almond flour cake and see how those proportions are different. That is a lovely recipe that you will enjoy.
Hi! I used 2.5 smaller eggs, 4 Tbsp of vegetable oil & then boiling water to soak the dates – I couldn’t blend the dates as I haven’t got a blender at the moment, but soaked them in the boiling water for a while and used my hand mixer to smash them up/mix them. All this worked out great and it tastes yummy! It has a slight bicarb taste (maybe I was heavy handed on the bi carb?) ..but will definitely make it again (oh and I didn’t have nuts so omitted these ) 😀
Sounds like you made the recipe work for you! 🙂
Hello!!!! Love this recipe….any idea on calories or nutrition info?
Hello!!!! Not sure, Denise. A lot of other bloggers recommend My Fitness Pal to their readers, so that’s worth a try. Sorry!
This was wayyyy too dry, couldn’t even mix it. I followed the proportions exactly and it was impossible to work with…. did I miss something? Nothing about the end resulting batter is pourable and now I’m just going to throw it all away. Disappointing
Hi Ashley, So sorry that this didn’t work for you. I am going to say with all due respect, yes, you missed something. The reason being that I have taught this recipe at least 30 times in different kitchens with different ovens and different pans and I’ve been making it for my family for at least 15 years. This is one of my oldest and most road-tested recipes. The batter is not pourable, but it shouldn’t be “impossible” to work with. I wonder if you had baked the batter you made, if the bread would have turned out. You might have been expecting the batter to have a different consistency when in fact it was the way it should have been. Sorry, it’s hard when I’m not in the kitchen with you to know what went wrong.
Will this work with a egg substitute? Do you have a fail proof one
Yes, you can try aquafaba (liquid from canned chickpeas), a flax egg, or Neat Egg which is garbanzo and chia powder to which you add water. Have you ever used aquafaba or a flax egg in baking?
I love the recipe. I just had a question. Can i use olive oil instead of butter?
Thanks
I haven’t tried it with olive oil, although I do make my zucchini bread with olive oil and I have an olive oil cake on the blog. It’s worth a try, I just can’t say how it will turn out. Let me know if you try it!
This is a wonderful recipe! I halved all the ingredients, and it was perfect for six muffins. Baked them for 20 minutes at 350. Will definitely make these again. Cheers!
So glad you enjoyed this recipe as muffins! I should be making this as muffins instead of a loaf — I might eat less of it! 😉
I had date paste (dates and hot water) and frozen bananas in my fridge and use the amount that is stated in your recipe. This recipe is delicious as it is stated and I will be using it again with some of the other suggested ingredients. Thank you for sharing such a great recipe. It is hard to find recipes with out added sugar that really taste good. I have also decided to look for quality baking whole wheat flour instead of always using almond or coconut. The other flours have been hit or miss. There is so much fear surrounded by food and it is the one thing that you want to enjoy. I like your 90/10 rule on your about page. It makes sense and it gave me a better understanding about the relationship and purpose of food. I have bookmarked your site and will be visiting often.
Thank you, Pamela. Nice to have you here! You can also try sprouted flours like spelt and wheat. They are a little more digestible but perform equally as well. 🙂
My sister in law asked for a birthday cake without sugar, sweetened naturally with bananas and dates, so this is perfect! I just had a few questions. First, do you think this would work with white flour? I usually bake with white whole wheat flour but ran out. Second, do you have a suggestion for a “frosting” that is naturally sweetened since this will be a birthday cake? I was thinking maybe plain fresh whipped cream and sliced strawberries (since I just bought some from the farmer’s market) but I don’t know if that will be too bland or if the strawberries will even go with this bread? Thank you so much for your help!
Yes, it will work with white flour. What about doing a date-sweetened cream cheese? You can take a look at my grain-free carrot cake and use cream cheese plus soaked dates and a little vanilla. I think that would work if you put it all in the food processor to get the dates super smooth. 🙂
OOOhhhh! Perfect! Thank you for your quick response! 🙂