Healthy Coconut Oil Banana Bread

This recipe is a game changer.

If you’re like me, you’re in an endless, torrid love affair with carbs. Sorry NOT sorry. Particularly if those carbs come in the form of banana bread. And even more so if that banana bread comes with chocolate chips.

I love banana bread and always have. And even though I, along with the rest of the world, am eating “cleaner” than I was three weeks ago, I know myself well enough to know that cutting out all carbs is not an option for me. It doesn’t work. I always find a way to get them into my facehole.

Me on no carbs ain’t pretty.

SO! I compromise. I swap out refined sugar for maple syrup, butter for coconut oil, and load this batter up with super foods like hemp and flax!

And you know what? This is my favorite banana bread recipe yet. Seriously!

I very much debated sharing this recipe with all of you because, really, who needs ANOTHER banana bread recipe?! No one. EXCEPT! This is a winnnnnnnerrrrr. And I knew that I HAD to share it with you guys. It is my favorite homemade banana bread to date, and I make A LOT of banana bread, so that’s really saying something.

I made this for “real life” (aka, not blog food) the first time a few weeks ago, and I’ve since made it three more times. We cannot get enough! Kieran loves the banana and chocolate flavor, and I love that he’s eating something secretly healthy.

This bread is heavy on the banana flavor, loaded with a caramely sweetness from the maple syrup, and has the most amazing texture from the coconut oil. Baking with coconut oil is a fun experiment every time for me, and this time, it resulted in a fluffy and moist (sorry! no other word will work) inside with a slightly crispy outside. Like, the outside of this banana bread has some serious texture going on.

Now, if you’re really looking to amp up the health factor even more, feel free to swap out the all-purpose flour for whatever alternative flour you prefer. Often times, I make a simple switch to whole wheat pastry flour in baked goods like this. It’s a 1:1 kind of swap, which makes my math-challenged brain happy. But, by all means, get crazy with the flours here. Go gluten free. Or add in some other whole grain flours, like spelt or buckwheat. Heck, even some oats would be nice here.

Banana bread is simple. And forgiving.

Just reason 39827 that I am obsessed with it.

Healthy Coconut Oil Banana Bread

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• Yield: 8 servings 1x

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Ingredients

• ⅓ cup coconut oil, melted
• ⅓ cup maple syrup
• 1¼ cups mashed ripe bananas (roughly 2½ large bananas)
• ¼ cup whole milk (or milk of choice)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon fine salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 tablespoons hulled hempseed
• 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
• 2 large eggs
• 1¾ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 large banana, peeled and sliced lengthwise (optional, for decorating the top)

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Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F and grease a loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the melted coconut oil, maple syrup, mashed bananas, milk, vanilla, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, hempseed, and flaxseed until well combined.
3. Taste the mixture for sweetness (this will depend on your bananas), and if it’s OK, whisk in the eggs. If it’s not sweet enough for you, add in another tablespoon or two of maple syrup before whisking in the eggs.
4. In another small bowl, place the flour and the chocolate chips. Toss gently until the chocolate chips are coated in the flour.
5. Stir the flour and chocolate chips into the wet mixture until just combined and no large pockets of flour are left.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and smooth out the top. Arrange the sliced banana on top, if using.
7. Bake for 1 hour, checking after 45-50 minutes for doneness, or until the top of the banana bread is golden and puffed and the middle is set. I ended up baking mine for an hour and 20 minutes.
8. Allow to cool completely in the pan. Invert and then slice as desired.

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