Healthy banana and walnut loaf is the perfect accompaniment to your coffee/tea break. It's delicious and easy to make with a superb moist texture.
Folks, this is a fantastic simple recipe showing you how to make a healthy banana and walnut loaf cake.
Filled with crunchy walnuts it's a great budget cake for sharing with friends!
My easy loaf cake recipes seem to have become very popular. Especially my Cherry Bakewell Loaf Cake.
So, based on the popularity of that recipe I'm bringing you this new loaf cake recipe.
Who knows, it could become as popular as that recipe! 🙂
I got inspired for this healthy banana and walnut loaf from an advertising board.
It was advertising a similar cake outside a coffee shop on my way home from work in Glasgow.
If you've been a regular follower of the blog for some years now (thank you!) you'll recall I wrote about how I like to do a lot of walking in the How We Follow the 80/20 Rule For Eating post.
That includes walking to and from work most days, when weather permits!
So I thought I'd give this cake a whirl. Plus try and see if I could make it a bit more healthy by using no butter and less sugar too.
I've based much of this banana walnut cake recipe on my earlier but trusted banana bread recipe. I consider that to be my best banana bread recipe.
I mean why reinvent the wheel when there's already a recipe that's perfectly simple and works?
The result was a fantastic tasty moist banana and walnut loaf. A masterpiece (in my humble opinion). 😉
As usual my other half taste-tested this healthy banana walnut bread first. She gave it the thumbs up!
Then I took a batch into work for my colleagues to try and it was all gone within an hour! That's pretty good validation don't you think?
This healthy banana walnut bread is a perfect way for using up old bananas and overripe bananas.
Those that perhaps don't look as appetising as they used to!
It's such an easy moist banana bread recipe to make. A great recipe for serving to guests and enjoying with a cup of tea.
You'l love the fact that this particular loaf of banana bread has fewer calories than a regular one made with butter too.
Of course I'm biased about this amazing recipe but I hope that you'll make this easy banana cake and add it to your list of delicious recipes to bake!
If you do love this sweet loaf recipe and want to enjoy an equally good banana bread, but in the form of a muffin then please head on over to my banana muffins recipe!
Jump to:
Ingredients
- Self-Raising Flour
- Wholemeal Flour / Whole Wheat Flour
- Bicarbonate Of Soda
- Salt
- Baking Powder
- Ground Cinnamon
- Caster Sugar
- Walnuts
- Ripe Bananas
- Yogurt - no fat Greek yogurt or no fat natural yogurt
- Eggs
- Vegetable Oil
See recipe card for quantities.
Substitutions
- Self-Raising Flour - you can substitute with plain /all purpose flour instead and 2 teaspoons of baking powder.
- Wholemeal Flour / Whole Wheat Flour
- Bicarbonate Of Soda
- Salt
- Baking Powder
- Ground Cinnamon
- Caster Sugar - if you use extremely sweet ripe bananas you can reduce the amount of sugar used.
- Walnuts - you could use other nuts like pecans.
- Ripe Bananas
- Yogurt - no fat Greek yogurt or no fat natural yogurt
- Eggs - I use 2 medium sized free range eggs.
- Vegetable Oil - I recommend only using vegetable oil as other oils may make the loaf taste funny.
Healthy Banana and Walnut Loaf Tips
- You can freeze this banana and walnut loaf cake.
- Before freezing cut it into 15 slices. This makes it easier to take out individual slices when required.
- Using oil and yogurt instead of butter in this banana and walnut loaf helps to cut the calories and fat out. Thus making it a healthy version!
- If you're not freezing this banana walnut loaf it'll keep in an airtight container for 2 to 3 days.
- If you want a more fruity variation of this banana walnut loaf you could add in 80g raisins along with the rest of the dry ingredients.
- Chocolate chips can also be added to this recipe or you could do my chocolate chip banana loaf cake recipe instead?
How To Make Banana And Walnut Loaf
Detailed instructions for the full recipe are the recipe card below. But here is a quick step by step guide of how to make this moist banana nut bread recipe:
- Preheat oven to 180C/350F and grease a 20cm x 12.5cm / 8” x 5” loaf tin. I usually just spray a couple of times with low cal cooking spray and spread that around with a piece of kitchen towel. Line the tin with greaseproof paper allowing it hang over the edges.
- Sift all of the dry ingredients, the flours, bicarbonate of soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, sugar and walnuts into a large bowl, or stand mixer bowl.
- In a separate bowl, add the wet ingredients by mashing the bananas first with a potato masher or fork, then add the yogurt, eggs and oil then mix together.
- Pour the wet mashed bananas ingredients into the larger bowl with the dry flour mixture ingredients. Fold all of the ingredients together either using the stand mixer paddle attachment or a rubber spatula.
- Pour cake mixture into prepared tin and bake for 30 - 40 minutes until well risen and golden brown.
- Allow to cool slightly in the tin before removing and transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Once completely cooled to room temperature store in an airtight container.
Equipment
For This Delicious Banana Bread You May Need….
The following links and any links in the recipe card below are affiliate links.
This means that if you click on it and then buy that product I’ll get a small commission (at no extra cost to you of course).
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This is the basic loaf tin I use.
As you can see it's relatively inexpensive and its perfect for loaf cake recipes.
Plus it's teflon coated and comes with a lifetime guarantee.
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Other Popular Loaf Cake Recipes You Might Also Like
- Lighter lemon loaf cake is such a delicious and easy cake to make. It’s based on Starbucks lemon loaf cake so if you love that but want a healthy version with less calories and fat then this is for you!
- Pumpkin and walnut loaf is a delicious moist pumpkin bread filled with crunchy little pieces of walnut. Made from whole wheat flour this tasty sharing recipe is a healthy way to enjoy pumpkin with friends and family!
- Lemon blueberry yogurt cake is a really easy healthy Greek yogurt cake recipe. It’s delicious, moist and fluffy. This loaf cake is just packed full of blueberry and lemony goodness and is perfect for an afternoon treat or sharing with friends!
📋 Healthy Banana and Walnut Loaf Recipe
The following links and any links in the recipe card below are affiliate links.
This means that if you click on it and then buy that product I’ll get a small commission (at no extra cost to you of course).
If you do click through then thanks for being a part of Neil’s Healthy Meals!
Equipment
Ingredients
- 150 g self-raising flour
- 100 g wholemeal flour
- 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- ½. teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 125 g caster sugar
- 85 g chopped walnuts
- 2 large ripe bananas
- 200 g no fat Greek yogurt or natural yogurt
- 2 medium eggs
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C/350F and grease a 20cm x 12.5cm / 8” x 5” loaf tin. I usually just spray a couple of times with low cal cooking spray and spread that around with a piece of kitchen towel. Line the tin with greaseproof paper allowing it hang over the edges.
- Sift all of the dry ingredients, the flours, bicarbonate of soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, sugar and walnuts into a large mixing bowl, or stand mixer bowl.
- In a separate bowl, add the wet ingredients by mashing the bananas first with a potato masher or fork, then add the yogurt, eggs and oil then mix together.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the larger bowl with the dry ingredients. Fold all of the ingredients together either using the stand mixer paddle attachment or a spatula.
- Pour cake mixture into loaf tin and bake for 30 - 40 minutes until well risen and golden brown.
- Allow to cool slightly in the tin before removing and transferring to a wire baking rack to cool completely.
- Once completely cooled store in an airtight container.
Nutrition
Nutrition Label
Nutritional information provided below is calculated using paid for online tools and the exact ingredients and quantities used above.
Rate The Recipe
If you’ve made this banana loaf recipe, or any other recipes on Neil's Healthy Meals, then please let me know.
I’d love to hear what you think of my recipe in the comments below and please do rate my recipe 5* if you like it! 🙂
Shashi at SavorySpin
Neil, so love your substitution of yogurt and oil for butter in this delicious looking loaf - and reading through your list, I can see why this disappeared in less than an hour - though I gotta say, if I was one of your colleagues, I'd probably have left a couple slices for others (even though I think sharing is overrated) and taken the rest of this entire loaf back to my desk, hidden it in my drawer and nibbled on slices of it throughout the day!
Happy Tuesday to you and Lady Lynne - hoping this week is off to a wonderful start for y'all!
neil@neilshealthymeals.com
Thanks Shashi, I think the majority of my baking recipes (except for bread) are now using the yogurt and oil for butter substitution. I've just got so used to it. And prefer it.
Ah, so it was you who ate the rest of the loaf? Ah ha 😆
Rebecca @ Strength and Sunshine
O banana bread can do now wrong 😉 Literally the coziest thing to bake up!
neil@neilshealthymeals.com
Agreed. You never can get enough of banana bread can you Rebecca? 🙂
David @ Spiced
Banana bread will always hold a special place in my heart, Neil. I remember my Mom making banana bread all the time when we were kids...and the smell in the house was just amazing. In fact, banana bread is one of the first things that I learned how to bake once I moved out on my own. I love this healthy version, and I definitely support the walnuts here! Oh, and great idea to freeze individual slices. Hope your week is going well, my friend!
neil@neilshealthymeals.com
When I mention that I'm baking I'm nearly always asked by my colleagues for Banana Bread David. I think that they have similar memories of their Mum's baking that for them too, when they were kids! Thanks for your comments. Enjoy your week too!
Ben|Havocinthekitchen
I do love the aroma of banana bread (the combo of banana and spices is just so intoxicating!), but I rarely enjoy it as banana bread can often be soggy and kind of underbaked (at least most of the breads I've tried). Clearly, that's not the case here - love this drier but still airy and light texture. And healthy? I'll take 3 slices then! 😉
neil@neilshealthymeals.com
I'll be honest Ben that it took me quite a few attempts at my original Banana Bread recipe before I was happy with the texture. Yes, previously it was soggy and underbaked, until I got it right. That's why I stuck to my original Banana Bread recipe with just a few tweaks here. Like I said, why re-invent the wheel 🙂
3 slices, why not 4......or 5? You're welcome! 😀