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Blueberry Banana Bread - moist, delicious, easy-to-make, with a beautiful texture and flavor from blueberries. It's a basic banana bread recipe made a little bit more special with the addition of blueberries. Only ⅓ cup of butter is used, the rest of it replaced with Greek yogurt and bananas. You'll love this easy recipe for its utter simplicity. This recipe makes 1 banana loaf.
Two very ripe bananas and one package of blueberries were sitting on my counter, so naturally, I had to make a loaf of banana bread with blueberries. I wanted something different from the banana bread recipe I used a couple of weeks ago, so, in addition to blueberries, I also added Greek yogurt. Well, adding the Greek yogurt was sort of a necessity (as opposed to creativity), since I only had 2 bananas while the recipe called for 3, so I measured that 1 mashed banana equaled ⅓ cup in volume, and that's how much Greek yogurt I added to replace the missing banana.
Blueberries add so much to banana bread! In addition to the berry flavor, blueberries make the banana bread even moister, without letting it lose the texture. Biting a slice of banana bread with blueberries is very much like having a slice of a berry cake: juicy and fruity, but without all the butter. I still can't believe that this moist loaf of blueberry banana bread has only ⅓ cup butter, the rest of butter replaced by Greek yogurt and bananas. I need to make recipes like this more often! In fact, other berries work really well in banana bread recipes, such as in this strawberry blueberry banana bread.
Tips for making the best banana bread
Below are simple yet important tips for making your blueberry banana bread loaf super moist, light and fluffy straight out of the oven:
- Use very ripe bananas. When peeled, ripe bananas are still white inside but very soft and mushy. Mashing such bananas with a fork is very much like stirring the smoothie: effortless! That's when the bananas are at their sweetest!
- Do not overmix the batter. Use only the wooden fork or a wooden spoon to mix the banana bread batter. Why? Overmixing allows the gluten to develop in the banana bread batter which will result in a dense loaf. If you don't over mix you will have a nice tender and soft loaf. It's OK to even have minor clumps in the batter here and there.
- Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper. Butter the parchment paper and then pour the banana bread batter. This ensures that the bottom of the bread will not get stuck to the baking pan.
Toppings for banana bread
This blueberry banana bread already tastes so good both warm and cold that you don't really need anything added to it. But if you do wonder what to put on banana bread, here are some simple suggestions:
- A slather of butter. Just add it on top of your warm slice of bread.
- Caramel syrup
- Chocolate syrup
- Dulce de leche (cooked sweetened condensed milk)
- Maple glaze
- Crumbly streusel topping
Related banana bread recipes
All of the below recipes are similar to this blueberry banana bread in the respect that they are more than just basic banana bread recipes, yet the additions are so simple that none of these recipes are time-consuming. All of them are easy and simple as if you were making a loaf of basic banana bread.
Strawberry blueberry banana bread - combine two types of berries for a delicious, moist, and colorful dessert bread.
Banana bread with walnuts - nuts are always a great addition to banana bread.
Pumpkin banana bread with apples - a great recipe to save for the holiday season.
Banana bread muffins - just like the banana bread, but made in a muffin pan. Nice individual portions, perfect for picnics or snack to pack for school/work.
Blueberry Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 2 bananas ripe, smashed
- ⅓ cup Greek yogurt
- ⅓ cup butter , melted
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- pinch of salt
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup blueberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. This recipe makes 1 banana bread loaf.
- In a large bowl, mix mashed bananas, Greek yogurt and melted butter, using wooden fork or spoon. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix just enough to blend the ingredients; do not over-mix, the lumps will work themselves out.
- Add whole blueberries to the batter and mix them in to distribute evenly through the batter.
- Butter a 4x8 inch loaf pan. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper, butter the parchment paper too. Pour the batter in the pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove the banana bread from pan and slice to serve.
- Note: lining the bottom of the pan with parchment paper ensures that the bottom of the bread will not get stuck.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer:
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
The recipe was originally published on April 16, 2013, and republished with tips and updates in June 2018
I made this and used blackberries!! Yummy! I also substituted applause for the butter and added 1/8 cup ground flax and 1/8 cup wheat germ
Also used 3 bananas. Sprinkled the top with sugar before baking to add a yummy top
Seriously, this cake is just not big enough! 😉
Here I was looking at the "Ewww yuk banana's" x4 that my daughters so love to call them, the half a pot of greek yoghurt (that I was fed up with looking at in the fridge) and a packet of blueberries (which usually never happens, they're normally demolished in 5 mins, however being in season here I think we've all overdosed) and then I stumbled across this recipe. (Without the nuts as daughter no.2 had eaten them all).
Perfect!
Well not quite, before the washing up could even be attempted all that was left was a pile of crumbs and a blueberry stain. The groans of delight that followed were of course satisfying my inner baking champion ego, however the groans that followed led me to the wine. (It was 7pm somewhere in the world).
Next day, remainder of the Ewww yuk banana's were thrown into cake no.2 this time with nuts (replenished the stock and now hidden from daughter no.2) teamed with some big flaked coconut and omitting the vanilla.
Oh my.
The washing up has been done and I've hidden the cake.
Groaning, not a chance.
I made this over the weekend, and it is so delicious! I never thought of putting blueberries in banana bread. I used fat free vanilla Greek yogurt, and while I hate substituting ingredients in a recipe that I've never made before, it still turned out great. Thanks for the recipe!
I am glad you liked it! I love blueberries in a banana bread. Strawberries go well too, except they tend to make banana bread too moist but if it's kept refrigerated, it's excellent too! I love vanilla Greek yogurt, but usually save it for myself for breakfast and use plain one for baking.
This is so wonderful! I have been making almost weekly as muffins! I use about double the blueberries. Thank you for a wonderful recipe!
Emily, I am so glad you liked these! Making these as muffins with double the blueberries will be my perfect breakfast!
How long would you bake for muffins?
If making muffins, bake in the preheated oven at 350 F for about 25 minutes.
Love this bread! Thank you
Thanks, Irina! 🙂
Could you substitute chocolate chips for the blueberries? Not as healthy, I know, but have a craving 🙂
Of course, you could! That would be so delicious!
I added sweetened shredded coconut instead of walnuts and it worked out really well!!
Thanks for the idea, Shelly, I've got to try adding sweetened shredded coconut sometime too!
Do you use plain greek yogurt for this recipe? Or can you use vanilla?
I used plain Greek yogurt for this recipe - but vanilla one can be used too - I've done it in a similar recipe previously: vanilla yogurt doesn't even impart that much vanilla flavor to the bread anyway, even though extra vanilla flavor would be more than welcome for this bread!
Anyone have the nutritional information on this?
Charity, I don't have nutritional information on this, but here is the site that a lot of people use: http://caloriecount.about.com/
Found you from Pinterest. This looks delicious and I only wish I had some ripe bananas on my counter to make it today. I'm headed to the store tomorrow though, so I'll make it by the end of the week.
Thank you, Kristia! I just happened to have 6 very ripe bananas, so over the weekend I made 2 loaves of this bread (no blueberries, because I did not have any), and I also made a whole pan of these banana bread muffins: https://juliasalbum.com/2014/01/banana-bread-muffins-recipe/
Hi there. I look forward to making your banana and blueberries bread. I have a question for you. Can u use frozen blueberries ? Thank u. Brenda
I have not used frozen blueberries in this recipe, but I've used frozen berries in similar recipes like this cake. So, I think frozen blueberries will work just fine! Just use them frozen, without defrosting, - that's how I successfully used them with that cake.
This bread was awesome!
Thanks!
You're very welcome! 🙂
Do you have any suggestions for egg replacement? I'm so excited to try this recipe for my in laws but they don't eat eggs.
Sima, I just did a google search, and it indicates that you can substitute an egg in a banana bread with 1/4 cup of very ripe mashed banana or 1/4 cup yogurt. So, I think you're safe replacing 1 egg in this recipe with 1/4 cup of ripe banana or yogurt.
It turned out wonderful just to let everyone know. Love it. The bananas could have been a little riper so day after tomorrow another couple batches.
Thank you! This banana bread does turn out great every time! And, yes, I like to use the bananas that are dark on the outside and very mushy and soft on the inside - such bananas make the best and the most flavorful banana bread!