Did I ever tell you about the time I almost forgot to put the bananas into my banana bread?
I have these finer moments in my kitchen from time to time. They mostly happen while I’m trying to cook and talk simultaneously. If I’m talking on the phone while mixing up a recipe, I tend to leave out key ingredients. Or add the same ingredient twice. It’s ridiculous. I think it’s crazy that I can usually multi-task quite well…but I can barely have a conversation with someone while I cook. Duh. Just be glad I type these posts after I’m finished cooking. Otherwise, these recipes would just be plain scary.
And so, because I care too much not to share, here’s a handy baking tip: When making Banana Bread or Muffins, be sure to add the bananas. The final product tastes much better this way. I’m nothing if not helpful.
Whole Wheat Banana Bread and Muffins
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour (I use freshly ground flour from hard white wheat)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup mashed over-ripe bananas (about 2-3 bananas)
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup melted butter
2 eggs
Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, mash bananas, or puree them in a blender. Mix mashed bananas, honey, melted butter and eggs into flour mixture.
For Bread: Spread batter into a well buttered bread pan. Bake in a 350° oven for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
For Muffins: Spoon batter into 12 buttered or paper lined muffin tins. Bake in a 400° oven for 20 minutes.
Speaking of finer moments in my kitchen…did I ever tell you about the time I made a lovely lasagna ahead of time so that I would be all ready for my company that night? Because, you see, it’s great to be prepared when you’re having company. Oh, and it also helps to get the lasagna out of the fridge and BAKE IT at dinner time. Being prepared doesn’t help at all if you don’t actually bake your lasagna. Yeah, dinner was a little late that night.
*sigh* I have actually done that– left the banana out of the banana bread. I soaked the wheat flour in homemade yogurt overnight, then spent the next morning stirring up what was going to be the best, healthiest banana bread ever. I even added chocolate chips to one of the loaves. It wasn’t even until I tasted it and saw the bananas on the counter that I noticed what was wrong. so sad…
Hi Alison,
I was just looking at this recipe and would like to soak the wheat overnight, but I am not sure how much yogurt to use. Can you let me know?
Thanks!
Well, unfortunately it was a different recipe. I hadn’t discovered this excellent one yet. ;) For that recipe, I mixed 6 cups ww flour in 4 cups yogurt or kefir and let sit overnight. Not sure if that is helpful or not.
…been there, done that. :) My favorite is forgetting the fruit, and adding extra leavening. *sigh* Puffy yet bland. ;)
You make me laugh!!! I would so totally forget to put the lasagna in the oven!!!!
This recipe looks yummy! I am going to make it this weekend and try it out on the kids! Thanks for the recipe.
Oh I so do that ALL the time. Mommy Brain at it’s best, right?
Laura, would you please do a post on grounding your own hard white wheat. I have always wanted to see this done. Thanks. And can you buy hard white wheat flour all ready ground anywhere.
King Arthur makes a white whole wheat flour. I usually use it because it doesn’t have a bitter taste like some whole wheat does. It can be a little hard to locate though and it is more expensive than regular whole wheat, but it is lighter in color and so may family doesn’t notice it as much.
Hmmm I’ve seen that… but since it’s “white” does it have the same benefits (I’m having a brain fart on the real word here) as regular whole wheat flour?
Yes, It has all the same benefits. I believe it is ground from the same kind of wheat Laura uses (hard white).
So what is the ‘white’ part of white whole wheat flour? I have wanted to use it, with it being lighter than whole wheat, but always assumed the ‘white’ part meant it was less nutritious!?
No, the “white” part of white whole wheat just means that it is made from White Wheat instead of Red Wheat. I wrote more about it here: https://www.heavenlyhomemakers.com/switching-to-whole-wheat-flour-making-the-transitions-easier
That’s a great idea! I’ll put that on my list of posts to do. I bet a lot of people would enjoy seeing how the grain mill works!
Thanks Julia!
So I am trying to get into soaking my grains, would that not be possible in this recipe? If so, step by step on that would be great. Btw, I did a batch of your pizza pockets/Mini apple pies last night(I did 12 of each with the dough recipe). They were a huge hit, I shared the apple pies with some friends and they all wanted the recipe. Even my husband who is not completely thrilled with our new way of eating ate 2 of the pies. The dough was amazing!!
I’m sure it is possible with this recipe. I haven’t tried it yet though, so once I do try it and get it perfected, I’ll edit this post to add the instructions.
You’re so funny :) I told my friend I’m not allowed to talk to her anymore while baking bread. I’ve ruined 4 seperate loaves during conversations with her. These muffins look great & I’m gonna make them replacing the egg with ground flax. I’ll link back when I do.
Hi Sarah. What is this about replacing egg with ground flax? I hope you link it. I like to use ground flax but usually just add it, don’t replace anything. Thanks!
I buy Hodgson Mill Milled Flax Seed and on the side of the box it says “may be used as a fat substute in most recipes. Generally, 3Tbsp of Milled Flax Seed can replace 1 Tbsp fat or oil. Likewise, 1 Tbsp. Milled Flax Seed plue 3 Tbsp. of water can replace 1 egg.”
I’ve tried replacing butter, oil and egg all in 1 recipe or individually with great sucess :)
Wow, I’ve never heard of that before. I will definitely try this! I am a huge fan of flaxseed and have some milled seed in my fridge, just never heard this tip. Thanks!
I’m Laura in Seattle, BTW. And I forgot the hamburger in Hamburger Helper! Not quite on the same “healthy” plain as y’all : )
Thanks for the recipe. Just what I needed as I was trying to figure out what to do with my over ripe bananas!
Do you ever use soft wheat for cookies, muffins or tortillas?
or have you had any success with soaking your muffin batter overnight? Or does that leave it tasting funny?
Thanks, I really just love your blog! I know you hear it a lot, but it blesses so many of us!
Sometimes I do use soft wheat for cookies and muffins and such…but I’ve just found it’s easier just to use hard white for everything. That’s really just me being too lazy to grind separate kinds of wheat…and these muffins would certainly work well using soft wheat.
I haven’t soaked these yet, but when I do, I’ll edit this post to add instructions.
Thanks for your encouragement about my blog!
Yum! Can’t wait to try these. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Laura. I will try these. I like that these have honey instead of sugar (not that I would expect sugar from you!). I’ll probably add some walnuts…
Hmmmm… these look delicious, Laura!!
I’ve had a number of cooking fiascos… my favorite “ooops” moment, though, was the time I forgot to put the burger (you know, the MEAT) on my hamburger. My husband, who had grilled that day, was quite amused that I actually didn’t notice I’d forgotten th meat until I was half-way done with my lunch!!! :/
Kristy @ Homemaker’s Cottage
Mmmm, these look delicious. We avoid the combination of fruit and sugar (including rapadura) with my 4yo (food intolerance) so these will be fun to try! We’ll have to wait for our bananas to ripen though, they still have spots of green. So glad you shared!
I have had luck with baking my bananas until soft it brings out the flavor. I saw it on Alton Brown on Food network several years back.
ok just wondering.. im trying to start using the whole wheat and “grinding” it or whatever you call it, myself but i dont want to have to buy a big new machine. is there a way i can do it myself without having to buy a grain mill?
I don’t know of a way to grind flour without a mill. There are some less expensive hand grinders, but I’ve heard that they are hardly worth the effort. Seems they take a long time and make very course flour.
Maybe you could see about a used mill on ebay or something like that?
I bought a hand crank mill on ebay and it is nothing but poo. I and my husband made flour today, he cracked it in the mill and then I took it and swirled it in the blender. It is still coarse and not fine like flour should be, but its not horrible. I just wish it was a bit softer. I will save for a better one later. Even doing it the way that I do there is a bit of leftover grain that doesn’t dring all the way down. The first day, I ran it through the hand crank mill 3 times, then thought of putting it in the blender, sure did make it easier. What takes Laura minutes with her grain mill, was taking me hours by hand/with the blender.
I made these yesterday because I had some very ripe bananas that needed to be used up, but I’m finding that the final product is a bit dense…normal for this recipe? Or was it maybe because I used the regular King Arthur whole wheat flour?
Mind you, we are all still eating these up after they’ve been heated & buttered up :)
Thanks for any suggestions!!
Aw, sorry yours weren’t as nice as you would have liked. My guess is that it was the King Arthur flour. It seems that my recipes don’t work as well with that flour. I’ve personally only used it once when I was in another state and everyone begged me to bake bread for them. My bread turned out much heavier.
AT LEAST the muffins were still eaten! I’m glad to hear that!
Thank you for that information! I’ll have to try these again in the future with a different flour.
I don’t currently have honey on hand but I do have honey granules. Do you think you would use the same ratio of honey to honey granules? I know that for normal sugar you use 1/2 – 1/3 cup of honey to one cup of white sugar. Any ideas?
I think you’d probably be fine to just substitute honey granules one for one with the honey.
Just made these and they were great!! I threw in some chocolate chips and the kids ate them up for lunch. Thanks for the great recipe Laura!
I have left out the sweetener from more than one batch of muffins until they were in the tins and I happened to lick my finger. Blech! I don’t use a lot of sweetener but none is really not very good. Now I always make sure to taste my muffin batter before I go to the trouble of spooning it into the tins :)
These muffins turned out wonderfully! Very light and moist. My daughter loved the batter and I love the result. We made mini muffins and cooked them for just ten minutes. I was glad to remember the flax seed meal tip when I discovered my husband used up all the eggs last night. We mixed 2 T. flax seed meal with 6 T. water and let it sit for a few minutes to thicken. Then, we subbed that mixture for the eggs. I might try a sprinkle of (unsweetened) coconut flakes on top next time.
I made these last night (finally), but 20 minutes in the oven was definitely too long for muffins at 400! Maybe my oven is off, but I think I will try 15 minutes next time. They were still delicious if a little dry.
Wow, I just noticed the “print friendly” feature at the bottom of these pages. I’ve been taking the time to cut and paste into Word, what a goof. Thanks for making it so easy to print the recipes. BTW, just made your breakfast cookies today. They are so good! Next time I’ll probably add some nuts. We’re going on a trip and instead of eating out for breakfast I’m making a few of your breakfast recipes. (Should save us some money, and we’ll be eating healthier too.) I just noticed I have a few bananas going over-ripe, so I’m back for the banana muffin recipe :)
OMGosh Thanks for finding that button! I have been using the snip it
tool! What a pain!
Sounds delish! I used to do a similar recipe with all purpose flour, and refined sugar, but since I am trying to convert our family over to healthy eating, I am thrilled to try this one! I just put a loaf in the oven for tomorrow’s breakfast, and added about a cup of blueberries, because I loved them in the other bread I used to make! Yummy!!!!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE that all or most of your recipes call for whole wheat flour!!!!! I grew up with more unhealthy food but have been a health nut since highschool. I LOVE whole wheat! Thanks for the great recipes.
I’m gonna try this if our bananas don’t get eaten in time. My mom once left the chicken out of the king ranch chicken! Now every time we have it, someone in the family asks, “Does it have chicken in it?” : ) Good memories!
Laura, I just used yur recipe to make banana muffins..they are so delicious..What a difference from artificial flavored, white flour, white sugar, etc…I don’t feel a bit guilty eating these…except for maybe the big glob of butter I put on it..lol…thanks for the great recipes…T.
butter is great for you!!!
Hi Laura, I have a question about using whole wheat vs. regular flour I just got a Blendtec and plan on trying to grind wheat with that. I have a great banana bread recipe that is from my mom. It turns out wonderful everytime and I use honey now too, but have always used plain white flour. Do I just substitute the white for freshly ground wheat flour or is there a difference in how much you use with whole wheat vs. plain store bought flour? Thank you so much!
Yes, I always just sub freshly ground whole wheat flour for white and it usually works fine!
I made this as bread tonight and it was absolutely DELICIOUS! The only thing I added was a handful of finely chopped walnuts and a splash of vanilla (even though I am sure it didn’t need it). It was so moist and delicious- thank you for all of your recipes. They always taste great and are nutritious. I feel good serving my girls nutritious REAL food, and your recipes are so kid friendly! Have a great Thanksgiving tomorrow!
I just made these muffins using fresh milled flour for the first time. They were so good. I was happy to use honey instead of the 1 cup of sugar that my other recipe called for. I did add 1/2 cup of chopped pecans. This recipe is definitely a keeper. Thanks for all your great recipes.
did you know that you can often use half of the amount of honey? Say a recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar, you can often use 1/2 cup of honey. My mom does this :).
I just tried this and it turned out to be very yummy! Thanks for sharing the recipe.
I made these today with 1 1/4 cups brown rice flour + 1/4 cup arrowroot powder, and minus the salt, instead of wheat flour, for a gluten-free version.
Success! Have a great day!
made these this morning. i topped them with your vanilla muffin cinnamon-y topping. fabulous!
i notice that all of my baked goods are much darker in color than yours. your banana muffins have the appearance of typical white flour muffins. and many of your baked items look so light in color. i have been using hard and soft white wheat. i wonder if it’s the wheat brand. thoughts?
I use hard white wheat from Wheat Montana. It is a very light white wheat, I noticed it’s lighter than the white wheat I’ve gotten from other sources. Interesting!
I made these this afternoon and they are so good! My kids loved them for an after school snack. Thanks Laura! I am loving your blog and making the switch to whole foods. I have been a “coupon queen” for the past couple of years. It hurt a little to actually pay for groceries yesterday! (I did use the Lara bar coupons though! They are also very good.) Thanks for explaining that feeding our famalies real food is an investment. Can’t wait to place an order with Azure Standard this month!
I made these tonight and used the King Arthur regular whole wheat flour. I substituted applesauce for the butter and we added chocolate chips. :o) They weren’t dense at all! Very fluffy and moist and yummy! Thanks for the idea!
I am very pleased with how well these turned out. I used fresh milled organic Wheat Montana Hard White Wheat after reading your comment that it produced a lighter colored flour. They were wonderfully light and fluffy. Moist and lightly sweet.
I made one real change– I added 2 Tbsp. water to the banana since I read that whole wheat baked goods need extra water because the germ and bran absorb more than white flour. I haven’t tried them without the water– I’m sure it works without, but I figured it didn’t hurt to add it!
This is my first quick bread recipe ever! I’ve tried making whole wheat bread before but it just never turns out quite right so I decided to try a quick bread recipe and it turned out amazing! I always end up making a disaster out of baked goods but this was so so so easy and the smell is just invigorating.It turned out fluffy and oh so yummy!
I put cinnamon at the top (:
laura,i tried this once before with a different eggless recipe(hadnt discovered u then)! n my loaf of bread rose in the oven n i left it to cool on the rack n when i was back after 50 mins or so,the loaf had gone flat!there were children running around but do u think its possible for the loaf to rise decently in the oven and stay risen for a good 5mins afterward,but then abruptly sink?while cooling?could i have wrong somewhere?lol,where????!btw,ur blog is truly inspiring,n ur preference for whole wheat makes u a true leader among men,er, i mean,cooks!thanks n regards,
geet
My guess is that it may not have been cooked through and through? Mine sinks after it’s been baked only if it’s underdone and gooey inside.
also,sorry but could u pl show us some more easy eggless whole wheat quick breads?it would be a great help,thanks,
Yikes, that’s not something I’ve tried much of – I tend to always use eggs in baking. What the egg substitute I’ve heard of…flax? How would that work in my recipes that call for eggs? I’m not much help in that regard!
I think if you take 1 T ground flax and stir it in 3 T water till it’s gelatinous (like an egg), it replaces one egg. There’s also a recipe here: http://www.food.com/recipe/flax-vegan-egg-substitute-104832 if you want to make egg-like substitute in bulk!
Does baking with wheat flour make your bread drier? Mine came out on the dry side and my kids didn’t think it was sweet enough. Do you think adding a little more honey would help? I did use 3 bananas but I think maybe four would have been better. Any suggestions?
Yes, try adding a little more honey, which should help with the dry and the sweet factor!
I added a bit of vanilla & used oil + applesauce instead of butter (milk sensitivity), and used Stevia instead of honey… and these came out DELICIOUS! Gonna eat mine with some almond butter (like an almond butter + banana sandwich, except… not so much). Thanks for the great recipe!! & LOVE your site.
YUMMY!!! I added another banana to make four total instead of butter in the recipe……….added 1 cup of milk chocolate ghiradelli chocolate chunks………and a strudel topping with butter, flour, brown sugar and cinnamon!!!
I was skeptical (how do you spell that?) about this recipe..no sugar, no white flour?? But these are probably the BEST Banana Muffins I’ve ever made or eaten. And I don’t feel guilty eating them either because I think they are pretty healthy! Thanks Laura :-)
What can I use instead of honey? I have one child under one and one that has trouble digesting honey. Brown sugar? and what would the exchange be?
Yes, brown sugar or sucanat would work. You may need a tiny bit more than the amount of honey called for, but not much.
My daughter has intestinal issues and needs a rather high fiber diet. How would you suggest adding fiber to this recipe? She loves these, BTW, especially when we add those tiny little chocolate chips.
I would try her Coconut Flour Banana Muffins. They are very high in fiber.
Here is the link: https://www.heavenlyhomemakers.com/coconut-flour-banana-muffins
Thanks, Just made this and it is being gobbled up before it has even cooled down.
Yum-these are so good! I used my brand-new NutriMill grain mill for the 1st time with these muffins and I couldn’t believe the results that fresh-ground flour makes. My whole wheat recipes (even including Laura’s!) usually turn out pretty dense with store bought flour, but these turned out so liht & fluffy and a wonderful flavor. I highly recommend using freshly ground flour as Laura does because now I see what our family has been missing! I added some frozen blueberries & a little bit of milk and they were delicious!
I am so low on honey and I still have to make my honey bread but I have over ripe bananas…can I use maple syrup instead of honey? Though I do have some sucanat too. :) I love honey though…bummed I don’t have enough for both recipes! Love your site!!! Thanks for always sharing your tips!
That should work out fine! :)
Hey Laura! Could I sub coconut oil for the butter? Having to go dairy free while breastfeeding my newborn…Thanks so much!
Yes that should work fine!
Hi,
Can you soak the flour say like on this one and have the recipe turn out the same? How would you do that? Or do you have a soaked banana bread recipe that is close to the one my Mom use to make : )
I’ve not tried soaking this recipe, so I don’t know for sure. :)
Sounds yummy! I am going to try this recipe today. I had one bad day recently where I spent the afternoon making pumpkin breads and forgot to add any sweetener. Then that same day I made yeast breads and just after I put them into the oven my son blew a fuse from using a compressor outside. My oven went out for quite a while before I noticed that my buzzer wasn’t going off and went to check. I just wanted to sit on the kitchen floor and cry.
Ok, so I am inspired by how much you stock your freezer. Do you think these could be frozen? I am crazy nervous about expiration dates…. if they could be frozen, I assume let them cool, but in a ziplock bag, pull out and microwave? Would love your input… sorry if a stupid question :) I happen to have 3 banana’s begging to be used in a banana bread right now…
Yes, these can be frozen no problem!
These muffins rose SO high and smell delicious!! Just waiting for them to cool so I can sample one! Thanks, Laura!
I love your recipes!! I want to make these muffins for my baby (11mo) who isn’t supposed to eat honey yet. How do you convert your honey amounts to sucanat?
Here is a post where Laura wrote about conversions: https://www.heavenlyhomemakers.com/how-to-adapt-a-recipe-to-make-it-healthier
Hi Laura! My muffins burned on the bottom. I hadn’t even baked for the full 20 min and noticed a burning smell at 11 minutes. They were cooked through but deeply browned on the bottom. Think it’s the honey??
It is possible that your oven just bakes differently. I have noticed that every oven I have baked in is different.
The same thing happened to me, and I didn’t use the honey. I substituted sugar. They were good, but I cooked them for only 15 minutes when I decided to check on them and noticed they were done. And the bottoms stuck to the paper wrappers.
Your oven is probably set to high. Some ovens cook a lot hotter
then others. Next time turn the heat down and see if that helps
Jesus Loves You!
I’m at the end of my grocery budget this week and running low on ingredients, but certainly had what I needed to make these yummy muffins (there’s always bananas in the freezer)! Thanks for your great ideas!
I doubled recipe and didn’t have all the bananas so I mashed blueberries and mixed with plain yogurt. Baked in a 13×9 pan for 36min. It came out Yummy! Thanks so much for this recipe, will be a great addition for our breakfast, snacks etc.
I just made these muffins and they turned out excellent! I doubled the recipe so I could have 24 and freeze some! I did bake mine at 350 for about 15 minutes instead of 400. They turned out perfect and golden brown. I think that might help the above commenter’s problem with the bottoms getting burned before the muffins are done.
Hi Laura, I am new to your website, and this is the first recipe I have tried…..the muffins turned out beautiful!! I have 6 children, ages 3 to 17 and this is the kind of recipe that makes switching to “whole” foods seem easy! Thanks so much!! Off to make breakfast cookies :)
Even more delicious when you add some chocolate chips to them!
Makes me want to bake some. Always a yummy treat! I received a piece during a marathon and it hit the spot!
I made the muffins, they turned out great! I did 375 for 20 minutes, in a stone muffin pan, and no burning issues. Couldn’t stop eating them :-) I hate using liners (I’m not really sure why), and these popped right out of the pan with no issues which was nice!
Hi Laura,
I was wondering, have you ever tried making any of your recipes with store bought flour? I have made a lot of your recipes and I don’t have a grain mill so I use store bought hard white wheat flour and all of my recipes turn out very dry.I just made banana muffins and unfortunately they are dry too.
Bummer, I have tried when I’m out of town at other’s homes, and they don’t turn out as good, but still okay. I think with storebought wheat flour you need to use less than my recipes call for, or maybe add an additional egg or milk.
I love this recipe!!! And had made this a zillion time already! I freeze them in a ziploc n take them out as needed for my toddler. They make great travel snacks too. I have also added flax seeds, walnuts, cinamon and they turn out yummy. This time thinking of experimenting with a bit of coconut.
I just made these muffins and they were fabulous!!
I substituted maple syrup for the honey, added chopped pecans and a little vanilla to the batter and then, before baking, topped with more pecans and a sprinkle of coconut sugar….I have to practice a little self-restraint so there will be some left for the family!!
I just made this loaf. Rate it at 3.5 out of 5. Glad I tried, but won’t make it again. I lost my original recipe which is much better and a little healthier. Texture was dense, too buttery, not sweet enough. Probably could’ve used some vinella extract.
I’m so glad you said that. I’ve been so concerned about myself lately because the last few years I absolutely can NOT cook if someone is in the kitchen talking to me. I used to be a huge multitasker but not so much anymore. Of course the kitchen is where everyone wants to hang out and talk to me – maybe because that’s the best place to find me, lol. Oh yeah, I was just looking for a banana bread recipe and didn’t even consider using my whole grains so now I’m really excited to get those mushy bananas out of my fridge where I’ve been trying to get a few more days life out of them. Have a blessed day and thank you so much for just being yourself!