March 16, 2021

3 Ingredient Banana Bread (No Butter, Oil, Eggs or Refined Sugar)

by Kirbie

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This easy banana bread is just 3 ingredients and produces a quick bread full of banana flavor. This bread has a similar texture to bread made with yeast but doesn’t require any yeast. This bread also does not contain any butter, oil, eggs, or refined sugar.

This bread wasn’t what I originally intended on making, but I am very happy with the result. I was trying to make a quick cake bread, but instead ended up with a bread that is like yeast bread but without any yeast. This bread recipe is perfect for when you’re low on ingredients or time. It takes just a few minutes to make the batter and then it’s ready to go in the oven.

Ingredients

Bananas
Self-Rising Flour (you can also make your own with all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt)
Milk (or milk substitute)

Very Ripe Bananas

This recipe requires very ripe or overripe bananas. They are much easier to mash, contain more liquid and are sweeter.

Self-Rising Flour

If you don’t have self-rising flour, you can easily make your own with all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt. I provide the exact amounts needed in the recipe box at the end of the post. I have not tested this recipe with whole wheat flour. I think it would work, but it will make the bread drier. If you want to try making it with whole wheat, I recommend only substituting half of the flour with whole wheat. You will also need baking powder and salt.

Milk

This recipe requires whole milk. You can also substitute with milk alternatives like soy milk or almond milk.

Pureed Bananas

The bananas are pureed in a blender or food processor until they become a liquid consistency.

Pureeing the bananas in the food processor does a few things for the recipe:

It gives the bread batter enough liquid to come together. This recipe does not contain a lot of liquid so it does use the liquid from the bananas.
It ensures that your bananas are evenly mixed throughout the bread batter. When bananas are only mashed you end up with little pieces of banana that will end up in some sections in the bread and not in others.
It breaks down the pulp fibers of the banana so you don’t see the dark specks like you usually see in banana bread.

While you can still make this recipe without a food processor or blender, it is a little harder. You can mash the bananas by hand but you will want very ripe bananas that are easy to break down. You will also have to mash quite a while to eliminate all the bananas lumps. I usually start with a fork and spoon and then switch to a whisk to break down the banana pieces. Your banana bread will also still have the dark specks from the pulp fibers.

Bread Texture

Most banana breads have a cake-like texture. This banana bread does not. Instead, it is more like traditional bread that is made with a leavening agent instead of yeast, similar to Irish soda bread.

This bread is also not sweetened. However, you can easily sweeten this bread by adding a few tablespoons of maple syrup or sugar to the batter.

More Easy Bread Recipes