How To Make Whole Wheat Banana Bread – 4 Ways! These are 4 easy and delicious ways to upgrade your whole wheat banana bread! It’s so easy to make with ingredients like whole wheat flour, Greek yogurt and eggs.
Leave it plain or create one of the delicious flavors: Chocolate Chip, Double Chocolate, Blueberry Lemon or Cinnamon Crunch!
Let’s talk banana bread. Love it? Hate it? We love it, but I do not always love all the butter, sugar and white flour going into it if we’re having banana bread for our snacks a lot.
So I’m sharing FOUR delicious variations for a healthier banana bread today. Please note, I’m still using sugar here – if you want a refined sugar free banana bread, check out my healthy banana bread recipe!
Ingredients you’ll need
Here is a visual overview of the ingredients in the recipe. Scroll down to the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post for quantities!
Ingredient notes
- Flour: Regular or white whole wheat flour both work. You can also use half whole wheat and half white. If you’re not looking for a whole grain bread, please go take a look at my Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread recipe. It’s out of this world delicious!
- Greek yogurt: I used plain Greek yogurt, low fat. Any fat content works, but I do recommend sticking to plain Greek yogurt.
- Oil: Use a neutral vegetable oil. You can also use melted butter instead of oil.
- Cornstarch: The cornstarch helps to yield a fluffy bread when baking with whole wheat flour. If you don’t have any you can replace it with white flour.
Step by step photos
Recipe tips
- Only fold the wet and dry ingredients together until just combined. Do not overmix, or you’ll have a dense and gummy banana bread.
- Use a spatula or wooden spoon to combine the batter. Do not use a whisk, or you’ll overmix the batter!
- Make sure to use very ripe bananas! If you use under-ripe bananas, your bread will not be sweet or flavorful enough.
Banana bread FAQs
Your bananas should be almost entirely brown on the outside. That way, you’ll get the best flavor in your bread.
If you only have unripe bananas, you can ripen them quickly in the oven. Put the unpeeled bananas on a lined baking sheet and bake at 300°F for around 15 minutes, or until the banana skins are evenly darkened.
I recommend cooling the bread in the pan for 10 minutes before removing it to a cooling rack. Allow it to cool for another 10 minutes before slicing into it.
Recipe variations
All variations are in the recipe card below, but I also made individual posts for them so you can easily access them through the recipe archives later!
Watch the recipe video
More breads to bake
PS If you try this recipe, please leave a review in the comment section and add a star rating in the recipe card – I appreciate your feedback! Follow along on Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram.
Whole Wheat Banana Bread with Greek Yogurt
Recipe details
Ingredients
Base Recipe
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup mashed bananas
- ¾ cup sugar
- ⅓ cup oil
- ½ cup Greek yogurt
- 1 ¾ cups whole wheat flour
- 1.5 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
For plain banana bread
- ¼ cup cornstarch or whole wheat flour
For chocolate chip banana bread
- ¼ cup cornstarch or whole wheat flour
- ½ cup chocolate chips or chunks
For double chocolate banana bread
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- ½ cup chocolate chips or chunks
For lemon blueberry banana bread
- ¼ cup cornstarch or whole wheat flour
- 1 cup blueberries
- 1 lemon zest only
For cinnamon crunch banana bread
- ¼ cup cornstarch or whole wheat flour
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
Cinnamon crunch streusel topping
- ½ cup regular flour
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup butter
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 360F. Grease a 9×5 inch loaf tin.
- Whisk eggs, mashed bananas, sugar, oil and greek yogurt together in a large bowl. Sprinkle flour, cornstarch (OR additional flour OR cocoa powder for double chocolate), baking powder and salt on top and fold in gently, do not overmix.
- For the variations, fold in the mix ins now. For the cinnamon crunch streusel topping, crumble ingredients together with your fingertips and evenly distribute on top of the batter in the loaf tin.
- Place batter in the loaf tin and bake for 55-60 minutes, or until a toothpick interred into the middle comes out clean.
Notes
Ingredient notes
- Flour: Regular or white whole wheat flour both work. You can also use half whole wheat and half white. If you’re not looking for a whole grain bread, please go take a look at my Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread recipe. It’s out of this world delicious!
- Greek yogurt: I used plain Greek yogurt, low fat. Any fat content works, but I do recommend sticking to plain Greek yogurt.
- Oil: Use a neutral vegetable oil. You can also use melted butter instead of oil.
- Cornstarch: The cornstarch helps to yield a fluffy bread when baking with whole wheat flour. If you don’t have any you can replace it with white flour.
Recipe tips
- Only fold the wet and dry ingredients together until just combined. Do not overmix, or you’ll have a dense and gummy banana bread.
- Use a spatula or wooden spoon to combine the batter. Do not use a whisk, or you’ll overmix the batter!
- Make sure to use very ripe bananas! If you use under-ripe bananas, your bread will not be sweet or flavorful enough.
More recipe information
I first published this post on 05/18/2017. I updated it on 05/25/2020 to make it more helpful to you.
Sharese says
Just curious if you’ve made muffins with recipe before? Would you keep the recipe the same?
Nora says
Plenty of readers have turned these into muffins! Recipe stays the same, baking time is around 18-22 minutes. Hope this helps!
Jess says
So delicious! I made some substitutes due to dietary restrictions: instead of granulated white sugar which has been giving me headaches I used 1/4C brown and 1/4 maple syrup and they were definitely sweet enough. I also used the oven ripening method to ripen my bananas and that helped increase banana flavor (350 oven for 15 mins with skin on). Instead of Greek yogurt I used your suggestion for extra 1/4C mashed banana + 1Tsp apple cider vinegar. I do wish that it rose more as it’s a fairly dense bread, and isn’t “fluffy”. Mine is almost the size of yours and I’m sure my subs must have affected the fluffy factor a bit. I did use cornstarch and tried to fold ingredients sparingly so it’s not gummy, just a bit dense but maybe that’s just what you get with whole wheat flour. ** All that saidC, these are fantastic and will def make again and share recipe!
Susan says
Hi Nora, we love your banana bread!!! Can you double the recipe? Are there any adjustments that I need to make when doubling? Thanks so much
Nora Rusev says
Susan, you can absolutely double it! I once made a quadruple batch, because with a banana-bread obsessed family… It vanishes fast. Ahem. Nothing to change, just double the amounts and then bake in two pans. Hope that helps!
Kristen says
Love this recipe. Do you know what the calorie breakdown would be?
Nora Rusev says
Sorry Kristen, you’d have to run it through a nutrition calculator! I don’t yet have the nutritional info for all of my recipes, but working on it 🙂
Shauna Roy says
I do not have wheat flour am
I able to use regular flour in this recipe?
Nora says
Hi Shauna, yes! Regular flour works very well in this recipe. If the batter seems thin, you may need to add a few extra tablespoons of flour. Hope that helps!
Cheryl Bursch says
Could butter be used instead of Greek yogurt? I happen to be out. Also I wonder what kind of cherries the other reviewer used? Fresh, frozen, canned? Hmmm…
Nora says
Hi Cheryl! I don’t know if you can use butter, I’ve never tried it. I have done sour cream though. If you’ve tried with butter, I’d love to know how it went! And I’m assuming fresh or frozen cherries? I’ll have to experiment, because cherries in banana bread do sound delicious 🙂
Morgan says
Can’t wait to try this! About how many bananas is 1 cup?
Nora says
For me it’s usually 3-4, depending on their size!
timmy says
Hi! Im about to make this recipe and really excited about this. Im just wondering if the greek yogurt should be on room temp?
Nora says
I know many people believe in room temperature ingredients when baking, but honestly? I never take anything out of the fridge early enough to be at room temp when I bake something, and it usually works out just fine. Up to you, it definitely works with yogurt straight from the fridge 😉
Timmy says
Hello Nora!Your banana bread recipe is superb. Thank you so much for sharing this! I made a plain banana bread and banana bread with dark chocolates. Yummay!!! Will definitely do this again!
Susan Kinsman says
Love this bread recipe! My husband drives a truck OTR and takes this with him every week. He said not only is it delicious, the texture is not as crumbly as some other breads, and it’s filling/satisfying! I’ve been making this for several months now so I’ve played with the ingredients a bit–he loves the double chocolate with my addition of cherries, and the regular banana bread with pecans or walnuts. Thanks for including variations so I felt more comfortable changing things a bit!
Nora says
This makes me so happy to read, Susan. I need to try the chocolate with cherries – sounds amazing!
Gina says
Hi Nora,
The first time i baked i used the sour cream instead of the greek yoghurt. The bread rose just a little bit because i put .5 tsp of baking powder instead of 1.5 tsp. ( a big mistake)
I baked again today , making sure i followed to the tee. However, it was taller than the first but still have a similar texture . The bread did not rise as i expected( like your video) but it still tasted good and my husband likes it too.
I really want to have this in my weekly things to bake list.
What should i do?
Nora says
Hi Gina, with this banana bread it’s REALLY important you don’t stir the batter too much. Only combine the wet and dry ingredients by folding with a wooden spoon or spatula for 5-10 times. NO MORE! The batter will look lumpy and terrible, but that’s the only way to get truly fluffy whole wheat banana bread. As soon as you overmix, it will have this gummy/weird texture. Hope you’ll get it to turn out right!
Gina says
Hi Nora,
Thank you for your respond. Will be baking again this weekend. Will let you know the result.
Just to let you know… I’m enjoying the bread(even if it did not rise as much). It taste very good!!!
Gina says
Hi,
Can i use sour cream instead of greek yoghurt?
Thanks !
Nora says
Yes, you absolutely can!
Swiss Maya says
Thank you so much for this delicious easy recipe, and all your clear explanations. I tried to make a banana bread last week, it was ok. But your recipe is sooo good, I will definitely keep this one for ever! First I have had a doubt because of the whole wheat flour but it turned out in a really really nice surprize, the bread was full of flavor and so moist…. You are doing a geat job Nora ! 👏
Nora says
Very glad you enjoyed the banana bread! And thank you for coming back to share your feedback, I appreciate it!
Prisca says
Can l replace the white sugar with date sugar? Will it affect the recipe?
Nora says
Hi Prisca! Sorry, I have never tried baking these with date sugar. I think it’s a pretty forgiving recipe though and you can certainly give it a shot. Let me know how it turns out if you end up trying!
Vanessa Gomez says
I OVERMIXED 🙁 They are so dense and gummy-like like you said they would turn out. :((( sooo sad
Nora says
Hi Vanessa, oh I’m so sorry! Did you end up making one base recipe, then divided it into 3 loaves? That’s probably why! I tried doing so once, and it was a disaster. They turn out so much better if you’re making a single flavor at a time. If it helps, they freeze wonderfully. So you could absolutely make three entire loaves and then slice freeze whatever you don’t want to eat right now.
Vanessa Gomez says
Oh also! In the description you mentioned we would be using milk. I don’t see milk listed as an ingredient though!
Nora says
Oh snap. There’s no milk in the recipe! Thanks for catching that, Vanessa. I’ll remove it from the description ASAP!
Vanessa Gomez says
Hi Nora,
I’d like to try and make the chocolate, the plain banana, and the cinnamon all from one base recipe. Does that make sense? I don’t want to make too much. How would I go about it? I was thinking of making one base recipe, and then cutting the other recipe flavors by a 1/3. I’m not sure if I would be doing this correctly. Please help!
Lauren says
Hi Nora,
What kind of Oil do you use in this recipe?
Thanks!
Nora says
Hi Lauren, I usually use a neutral oil like sunflower seed or canola! Hope that helps 🙂
Alex says
What did you use for the glaze on the lemon blueberry loaf?
Nora says
Hi Alex, just some powdered sugar mixed with some lemon juice! Nothing fancy 😉
Marisha says
Would this work with regular yogurt instead of Greek yogurt?
Nora says
Hi Marisha! It just shouldn’t be a very thin yogurt, but then a regular one is fine. You could also sub in 1/2 cup extra mashed banana instead of the yogurt! In that case I would just add 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar (or similar) to the batter, so the baking powder has some extra acidity to work with! Hope that helps!
Monica says
Hi Nora! I tried your recipe yesterday and it turn out amazing! I went with the chocolate chips, and added half cup of pecans, my husband love it and half loaf is already gone 😀 Thanks for the recipe!
Nora says
Hi Monica! I’m so glad you and your husband like the banana bread – and what a great idea with the pecans! I’ll have to try that, too 🙂 Thanks for taking the time to review the recipe – I appreciate it so much. – Nora
Jesi says
This recipe is amazing. I make a lot of banana bread. Like… a lot. This is the best I’ve ever had. Tried all four ways & they are all delicious. Only recipe I will ever use again. Thank you!!
Nora says
Aww Jesi, your comment absolutely made my day! I’m so glad you love the recipe and I’m thrilled that you tried all four ways succesfully. Thank you for taking the time to leave feedback – I appreciate it very much!!