Banana Bread with Honey

When I checked my freezer to see if I had any blueberries left in there, I found instead what seemed like a tree’s worth of bananas. I decided I had to use them up, fast! I made 4-ingredient cookies with bananas, shredded coconut, oats and mini chocolate chips, but though they were decent enough, no one here really liked them. For the Engineer’s birthday, I made a banana-chocolate chip cake with peanut butter frosting, and while that was delicious, I just don’t have good pictures of it (I must have been in another state of mind when I took them, because they are either off-centered or out of focus).

The recipe I will share, though, is banana bread. Yes, another banana bread recipe! This one doesn’t contain refined sugar, only honey. That being said, I actually thought it was too sweet, and I’d use less honey next time. Maybe ½ cup instead of ¾ cup? I didn’t think I’d have this problem, since I am known for my sweet tooth, but there you go. This banana bread was moist and had a great color as well as a pleasant crumb.

2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
½ cup sugar free applesauce
¾ cup honey (see note above)
2 eggs, beaten
3 mashed overripe bananas

Preheat oven to 350 °F. Lightly grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt.

In a separate bowl, mix together applesauce and honey. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.

Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

[Update, 15 April 2021: I just made this with ½ cup honey. While the level of sweetness was fine, the bread itself was darker and less pleasant. I’m not sure what else could have affected the result, as I’ve been mostly brand-loyal on other products. So… not sure I recommend using less honey after all. Maybe it’s just that the taste of the honey is very strong?]