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!
Love this recipe! Really great and easy. But sometimes I get chunks of dates because I find it hard to break them down using the mixer.
Then puree the dates in a food processor!
I have made this about 5x now, always turned out well. I have been using sprouted spelt and coconut oil. I have added dark chocolate a couple of times because I’m naughty but it’s delicious whatever. I have a loaf in the oven right now!
I love sprouted spelt flour in baked goods. Such a nice mild flavor and the sprouting makes it more digestible. Chocolate sounds LOVELY!
How many calories?
I discovered this recipe via google. I have eliminated refined sugar from my diet, and I had plenty of bananas and dates. I made it in muffin tins just to speed up baking time. The taste is amazing and the sweetness is understated (not overpowering) and I will be making these many times in the future. Thank you for this recipe, as it ticks all the boxes! Gives me a little bit of sweetness without using sugar.
Oh, I’m so glad! It’s the only way I make banana bread. I agree that the sweetness is just right. Thanks for your feedback!
Our go to recipe for banana bread! We use coconut oil and whole wheat flour, always comes out great! Thank you for the healthy way to enjoy a family favorite.
Coconut oil and bananas are a great combo! Glad you are enjoying the recipe. 🙂
I dont have the mixer, can i do this in a regular blender?
To make this gluten free what flour would you be ideal to use in your opinion? Oat flour?
Thank you!
I would say the ideal would be a split between a GF oat flour + your favorite GF flour blend + a little xanthan gum. Otherwise yes, try all oat flour.
We used our Vitamix for the wet ingredients, worked great!
Thank you for your reply. Made muffins and loaf this morning. Was a hit with the family.
Great to hear!
Made this recipe and it was DELICIOUS! I blended the bananas with the wet ingredients and I think that’s why it was so moist. I also added in some vanilla bone broth protein powder for some extra protein!
love it love it love it!!
can I substitute all almond flour.
Not in this recipe, I’m afraid. You can sub it for the almond pulp though in my almond pulp banana bread recipe. https://pamelasalzman.com/banana-bread-almond-pulp-recipe/
Thank you for your reply. Made muffins and loaf this morning. Was a hit with the family.
Will this work with just self raising flour if i don’t add banking powder? My supermarket is too far to get the other flour and i really want to try this tomorrow xx
Sorry i meant baking powder! Bloody predictive text!
Yes, I knew what you meant! I haven’t tried this with self-rising flour, so I don’t know if it would work. Do you have regular all-purpose flour? You can use that in the same amount as the whole grain flour…
First time I made this exactly as reads, opted for 1/2 butter 1/2 coconut oil as the fat selection. I liked it, but a little baking soda-y and even though it had plenty of oily type fat (wasn’t too much though!) it felt like it could be richer somehow. Second time I wanted more richness, so I soaked the dates overnight in 1/2c + 1 T (to try to account for the solids in it) milk. My bananas were all a tad riper this time (like one step before molded lol). I also added the banana mush in with the wet ingredients instead of folding in last this time because it makes more sense and seems like it would help prevent overmixing. Both times I added extra spice (nutmeg, clove, cinnamon). This time the baking soda taste was even stronger. My guess is the riper bananas were less acidic and thus left unreacted baking soda. Also it was a little dry even though I took it out at 50 mins so thinking the extra T of liquid was not enough to account for the milk fat solids from my substitution of milk for water. I want to keep using very ripe bananas to maximize the natural sweetness in the recipe because hubby is very accustomed to added sugars in things, so I want to get this close to what his taste buds like but without adding sweeteners. I’m thinking next time I will try adding some plain yogurt (maybe 1/4 c?) as it will both increase acidity and moisture. Will let y’all know what happens! Thanks for sharing this unique, tasty and healthful recipe idea!
Adding yogurt is a nice idea!
Mine came out very “pudding”-like and there was slightly too much batter for the tin. I am wondering what I missed as the cake although damp tasted exceptional and I can see it has come out well for you and most of your commenters. I live in the UK where our fruit tends to be smaller than yours and I wonder if subbing 4 small bananas was a mistake. I also pureed them rather than mashed them so I wonder if that also made it too damp? It hasn’t stopped us eating it and I’m looking forward to giving it another go!
My guess is that your tin was too small. The loaf pan I use in this recipe is 9 x 5 inches. 9 inches is about 23 centimeters. If you don’t have a large enough tin, you can bake this in a cake pan or as muffins as well. Different cook times, though.